Bunnies, Flowers, Fire, and Ice
by LemonyZest
Summary: Izuku always dreamed of becoming a great hero even without a quirk, and with help from All Might she just might succeed. Now if only she could figure out what's going on with her soulmarks... Fem!Deku SoulmateAU UNDER CONSTRUCTION
1. Chapter 1

Soulmarks existed long before quirks did, but there was still far less knowledge about the marks than there was about quirks. Soulmarks prior to actually meeting your soulmate were almost always too vague to be very telling. After meeting your soulmate the mark could take on detail or it might grow or even move across your skin. Even then the meaning behind a person's mark was sometimes hard to tell. Some people had marks that represented their soulmate's quirks, others that represented their personalities, or the way they felt about their soulmate, while still others represented the bond they shared or an aspect of their soulmate's personality. It was entirely inconsistent in Izuku's opinion. Nonetheless she loved her soulmarks. Some other students had speculated the pale matching orange and blue stripes on each wrist were because she had 2 soulmates, though it was rare to have more than one. Izuku had looked into it, but found that typically those with two wholly separate soulmates did not have marks that matched each other the way hers did. One fine orange stripe and an identical blue striped on her opposite wrist. No, she had one soulmate.

She told Kacchan she was sure they were both for just one person but he'd only scoffed and said she couldn't possibly know because she was just a deku and what did she know. She asked about his mark and he'd shrugged and said it was on his back, but never told her anything beyond its placement.

Once she and everyone else in her class found out she was quirkless her peers turned cruel. They pitied whoever had to be the soulmate of poor, quirkless deku. Her soulmarks became her lifelines. A reminder that someone was out there for her to love. The other students leered and made fun because surely her soulmark would be unrequited. It was a sad thing and it was rare, but then so was being quirkless in this day and age. She did her best to prepare herself for the possibility that her soulmate's mark would not be for her. She would love them anyway and hopefully they could at least be friends. Izuku instead focused on her goal. She would become a hero. Even without a quirk or a soulmate she would smile and protect the people. More than anything that's what she wanted.

Later, when she ran into the river to help Kacchan after he'd fallen he'd stared at her hand for several seconds before standing up and shoving her down. He sneered and said he didn't want help from a deku that didn't even have a quirk. Izuku had sat in the water thoughtlessly tracing the orange ring around her wrist long after Kacchan and the other children were gone. It became a habit after that. She was constantly touching her soulmarks. Anytime she was anxious or upset or thinking, which translated to nearly always. She felt like there was a steady, determined strength behind her marks and she drew on it to calm and reassure herself. She would prove them all wrong. She could be strong; she could be a hero.

That stubborn and defiant thought lived on for years and fueled her to further study heroes, not just All Might, though he would remain her favorite. She filled notebooks with observations, plans, costume designs. Anything and everything related to heroes or becoming a hero filled their pages. There was a lot about different quirks and occasionally she would jot down if a hero's soulmark was public knowledge. There weren't many. For protection most heroes covered their soulmarks with their costumes or wore skin patches to cover them up. Others lied entirely in order to misdirect. She sometimes idly wondered if that was why Kacchan had stubbornly never shared his mark with anyone. Practice for the future when he was the number one hero? Not that a random smudge on his back would actually tell anyone anything. It wouldn't be a concern until it activated when he met his soulmate. Regardless she was probably overthinking it.

* * *

Izuku was still scribbling out the plethora of things she picked up from the hero battle she managed to witness that morning as the teacher walked into their classroom. "Since you're third years it's important to start thinking seriously about your futures! I've got forms to fill out, but that said, you're all planning to go the hero course, right?" He gave a defeated smile as the class erupted in a chorus of agreements, each student proudly displaying their quirk.

"Oi! Don't lump me in with these extras!" Izuku immediately snapped to attention at the strong voice that rang out over the chaos. The other students responded with angry shouts, offended by his arrogant and standoffish attitude. Izuku just slunk into her chair, trying to disappear. Kacchan kept going, seemingly spurred on by their classmates, "Just shut up, you damn losers!"

"If I remember you're aiming for UA, right?" asked the teacher as he flipped through some sheets on his clipboard.

The classroom went quiet for a moment before everyone started gossiping about how the national school was too hard to get into. She dropped her head on her desk. She had a bad feeling.

"That kinda thinkin' is why you're all just extras!" Katsuki Bakugou jumped easily onto his desk as if to emphasize that he was above everyone else. "I aced the mock test! I'm the only one from this shithole that could possibly make it into UA! I'll surpass All Might himself and become the top hero!"

"Midoriya, you wanted to go to UA, too, right?" the teacher drawled. She froze. The entire class was glaring at her before they collectively burst into laughter.

"Midoriya? No way!"

"You can't become a hero by studying hard!"

She opened her mouth to argue only to fall back at the sudden impact of Katsuki's fist on her desk, causing the poor piece of furniture to burst into flames. "Hey, shitty Deku! You don't even have a quirk, but you're trying to compete on my level?!" He looked manic.

"No! Kacchan! I'm not trying to compete or anything!" She crawled backwards to get away from the angry boy, waving her arms frantically. "It's just it's been my dream since we were little and- and I won't know unless I try..," she'd hit the wall. No way out.

"Unless you try, my ass! You taking the test for fun or something?! You're quirkless, what're you supposed to do?"

The teacher reestablished order after that but Izuku didn't look up from the burnt wood of her desk the rest of the day. She traced the lines on her wrists as she tuned out the voices around her.

It wasn't until the end of the day, as students filtered out of the room, that she peeled her eyes up and tugged her sleeves down. She took a deep breath as she packed up her things. As she reached to put her heroics notebook away, it was snatched up by Kacchan. "I'm not done talking, Deku." She shifted uncomfortable under his glare.

His posse came up behind him and asked what he was holding. Kacchan lifted it lazily to their eye levels, not taking his eyes off of Izuku. "Hero Analysis for the Future? Seriously?" They laughed hysterically. She didn't think it was that funny.

"Give it back!" She said, standing and reaching out to pluck it out of Kacchan's grip. He lifted the notebook out of reach and slapped the cover, causing it to explode. "That's mean!" She started to argue only for the boy to carelessly toss the charred notebook out the open window behind him. Izuku stared listlessly at where her notebook had disappeared.

"I'm going to have the title of being the only student from this shitty junior high to make it into UA, got it?" he asked, slapping his hand down hard on her shoulder making smoke wise from her burnt uniform. "So don't apply to UA, fucking nerd."

He turned to walk away, his friends making snide remarks about how weak and pathetic she was. "If you really want to be a hero, here's an idea! Believe you'll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof!" Izuku whipped around, mouth open with a retort only to meet angry red eyes. Katsuki flared his quirk threateningly and she went still. There was nothing she could say. She would just have to prove them wrong. She went outside to fish her notes out of the pond, muttering about how Kacchan shouldn't recklessly go around telling people to kill themselves and how her dreams were being turned to fish food as she found the koi nibbling on the burnt edges of her booklet.

Author's Notes: AAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Soulmate!AU with fem!Deku I'm garbage, but whoa this is my first fanfic? Honestly I'm a bit disappointed that I'm not putting more effort into this, but hey maybe I'll rewrite some of this later. The next chapter is already written, but I'm gonna wait and see what happens. No idea how this works. The next chapter will probably just cover Izuku meeting All Might, and _maybe_ I'll add the sludge incident.


	2. Chapter 2

His day had been going so nicely, he'd found some great sale items and was leaving the store with his groceries when a slime villain ran- or slid?- across the street, apparently having just robbed another store if the murmuring crowd was right. Naturally, he pushed himself into hero mode, announcing his presence to the awed crowd before he gave chase. It should have been easy. Things these days, he thought, were seldom as easy as they ought to be, though. The villain escaped into the sewers and it wasn't exactly easy to navigate the dank tunnels of the city.

Since he was All Might, top hero and Symbol of Peace, the maze of tunnels only managed to delay him a bit as he jumped up after the slimy villain back into daylight. "Have no fear!" His gut clenched at the sight he was met with. There was a yellow back pack tossed to the side, contents spilled, an open notebook thrown to the wayside, and in the middle of the tunnel the heinous thing had wrapped itself around a girl. There were tears in her eyes as she clawed helplessly at the fluid body of the monster. Putrid green tendrils wrapped around her arms and legs, constricting her movement as the monster tried to force it's way into her mouth, strangling her. The sludge turned to him, eyes widening in alarm, "You are safe! Because I AM HERE!" his voice boomed.

The sludge threw out some of its tendrils to attack but he easily dodged and brought his arm back, forming a fist, "TEXAS SMASH!" The sludge burst apart releasing the girl as she fell, now unconscious, to the ground. He carefully collected the scattered and gooey pieces of the monster, and begrudgingly poured out his soda in order to contain the sludge monster in the bottles. Finally he turned his attention to the girl. Her uniform certainly worse for wear, but she looked unhurt outside of some scrapes and bruises from falling- maybe he should have caught her- woops. Her round face was covered with a smattering of freckles across her cheeks and she had an unruly mass of green curls sticking out haphazardly around her. She was small and young- definitely a middle schooler. His gaze trailed off to her things and he quickly tossed everything back in her bag before reaching for the notebook. _Curious_. The booklet was rather badly scorched. He flipped through the pages and felt his chest go warm and gooey. Every page was full to bursting with notes on heroes and heroics and lots of notes about him, too. She was clearly a fan. He picked up a pen and found 2 blank pages to fill with his signature. He walked back to his fangirl, knelt down, and patted her face eagerly, coaxing her to wake up. He had to make sure she was okay, and his time limit was quickly approaching.

"HEY! Hey! Wake up!" Her eyelids fluttered open, unfocused emerald eyes squinting against the bright sunlight. He stopped patting her cheek and held his hand up in greeting, "Thought we lost you there!" Her eyes immediately and rather comically popped out of her head as she took in the sight of him. He stood up, amused as her face went red and she screamed, frantically backing out of his space. "Sorry about back there! I didn't mean to get you caught up in my work, usually I'm more careful about keeping civilians safe, but the sewer system here is really confusing." It was a lame excuse, and he felt a little lame saying it. Looking back at the girl, she was clearly only half-listening at best, still in a state of shock at being in his presence. "Anyway, I've captured the evil-doer!" He held out the sludge-filled soda bottles proudly.

She seemed to snap to attention suddenly, blurting out, "I've got to get an autograph! I've got a pen around here somewhere, I know it!" She searched her uniform frantically and raced over to her notebook. Opening it up she shouted, "Oh my god! He already signed it!" She spun around bowing and started rambling animatedly about it being a family heirloom. He quirked an eyebrow at her antics but was relieved that she was so energetic. It meant she was okay. He tossed her a thumbs-up.

"Well, I've got to get this guy to the police, so stay out of trouble! I'll see you around!" He turned and bent down to jump away.

"You- You're leaving already?" Something in her voice sounded pained. He brushed it aside. He was running out of time.

"Pro-heroes are constantly battling time as well as enemies!" he proclaimed. "Now stand back, I'm taking off!" and just like that he was in the sky, leaving his odd fangirl behind.

Or not.

He sweat-dropped as he looked down at the screaming weight on his leg, "Huh?"

The sound she was making was hilarious but that was really not the point right now, "I love my fan's but this is too much!" He tried to yank her off his leg, but she had a surprisingly strong grip.

"No way! If I let go now, I'll die!"

He stopped pulling, "Oh right, good point."

"I just have a lot to ask you! You're my all time favorite hero, please!" He couldn't tell if the tears were there because she was emotional or if it was the wind velocity.

"Oh, alright. Just close your eyes and mouth." She did as she was told, burying her face against his calf to hide from the strong wind. He grabbed her backpack strap just to be sure she didn't fall off. He coughed, tasting blood on his tongue, "Shit."

Immediately, All Might set about finding a suitable roof to land on. After crashing down, he dropped the young girl onto her own two feet. Her legs wobbled and she fell to her knees, looking somewhat traumatised, "My whole life just flashed before my eyes."

Part of him wanted to laugh at her crazy antics and the fact that her messy curls had all but exploded into a shoulder-length afro after her brief flight, but there was no time. He settled for turning his back to her and saying, "Not a smart move. Bang on the door for a bit and I'm sure someone will let you in. Now I have to go! See you later!"

He started to walk to the edge of the roof, "Wait! _Please,_ wait! Not yet! If I could just have a second-"

"No. I don't have time." He kept walking.

"I have to know!" He paused. There was something in her voice- desperation? Longing? "Is it possible to become a hero, even if I don't have a quirk!?" Ah. She was quirkless. Like he had been, but then that was a lifetime ago. "I'm a normal kid without any powers, but-BUT could I ever learn to be someone like you!?"

All Might turned to appraise his fangirl. Round eyes squeezed shut, cheeks dusted red, hands clenched in fists at her sides as she waited for his answer. He immediately understood the power his answer would hold for her. If he said she could do it, she would never stop trying, might even get herself killed just trying to help. This anxious and reckless fangirl? He could see it. "Without a quirk?" Pain shot through him suddenly- his time was up. Why had he stopped? He hunched over as pain coursed through his body. This was bad. _Not now, not here._ His hero form was dissolving, slipping away in a cloud of steam.

He vaguely heard her voice, she was talking again, mumbling quietly about how people discounted her because she was powerless, "But that just makes me want to prove them wrong!" her voice was getting louder now, like she was gaining confidence as she spoke. "I've always believed saving people was the coolest thing ever, and I want people to see my fearless smile and feel _safe_! To be the kind of hero everybody looks up to! Just like you!" She finished eyes finally looking up at him again only to be met with his decrepit true form. Someone everybody looks up to? _What a joke_.

She screamed. He cringed at the sound. Naturally he knew she was shocked, but it hurt, both his ears and heart. He stood there, staring back at her as she processed his transformation. "What happened?! You- you deflated!" She looked around quickly, "Where did All Might go? You're not him. A fake? You're an imposter! " _Ouch_.

"I assure you that I a-" blood poured from his gaping mouth like a waterfall. He wiped the blood away and casually continued, despite her frantic concern, "You know how guys at the pool are? Always sucking it in and flexing to look cool? I'm like that."

"No way. All Might's a giant of a man who saves everyone with a fearless smile.."

He gave a heavy sigh, "There's plenty of fear behind that smile." The exhaustion of the day finally catching up to his body, he sat before deciding he should probably explain his current state. That said, he'd never been great with explanations and figured showing would be easier than telling. "I'm expecting you to keep your mouth shut about this. No telling your friends or posting about it online." She looked like she was about to ask what he meant just before he gripped the hem of his shirt and lifted it to reveal the nasty wound on his side.A bizarre rounded scar with radiating suture lines reaching out up his chest, across his stomach, backwards over his ribs, and down along his hip. The whole scar was varying shades of bloody reds and bruised purples discounting the oddly shaped collection of smears that the scar spiderwebbed over and obscured. He heard her gasp and glanced up to see her hands cover her mouth in horror. That was more or less how most of the few he'd shown the injury prior had reacted as well. All Might knew how disgusting it looked. He looked like he belonged in a morgue, not out fighting crime, like he was a walking corpse playing at being a big, grinning hero.

"Got this in a big fight, about five years back. My respiratory system got destroyed, and I lost my stomach. All the surgeries have worn me out. It can't be fixed." He snuck a peek at the young girl again, her arms had fallen limply to her sides, her eyes sad as they looked at his injury. It felt like she wasn't seeing the injury, but the pain that it caused him. There was no pity, just a deep sadness, as if she or a loved one had been injured, not just some celebrity she looked up to. A real person. "I can only do hero work for about 3 hours a day, the rest of the time I look like this." All Might waited a moment for her to take in his words before dropping the cotton tee back down.

"Five years ago? The fight with Toxic Chainsaw?" she asked. There was sincere concern clear in her voice. It made him want to smile. She was a sweet girl. And she evidently paid attention, too. Though he should have guessed as much from her hero book and the #13 on the cover that indicated she had 12 more of the things somewhere.

"Wow, you really know your stuff, but no. Little punk might have landed some hits, but he couldn't bring me down. Most of the world has never heard of this fight. I did everything in my power to keep it under wraps." He shouldn't be telling her all this. She shouldn't know- but she had to. He was her hero, and he had to tell her the truth, even if it hurt him to admit it and her to hear it. "I'm supposed to be the guy that's always smiling, right? The 'Symbol of Peace'? People have to think that I'm never afraid," He looked down at his empty palm before balling it into a fist, "But honestly I smile to hide the pain inside. It's just a brave face I put on when the pressure is high. This job isn't easy. Pro heroes always have to risk their lives." He saw her tense and braced himself as he got to the point of this whole display, "Some villains simply cannot be beaten without powers. So can you be a hero? Not without a quirk."

If he thought she had looked shocked or horrified seeing his scar, it was nothing compared to the look on her face now. She was trembling, but he could see her slowly force a broken smile. "I see." she said to the ground. He almost felt bad. Almost. Better for her to be a living civilian than a dead hero.

He forced himself back to his feet, "If you want to help people, there're plenty of safer ways to go about it. Maybe become a police officer, you get crap 'cause the heroes catch most of the villains, but it's a fine job." All Might slowly made his way to the door. He was doing the right thing, but it was hard to look at her face when she wore her feeling so openly like that and he knew exactly what the impact of his words were. He pulled open the door, relieved briefly that it had been unlocked in the first place. "It's alright to have a dream, little lady. Just make sure your dreams are attainable. Realistic. Understand?" He hoped she did. Or at least that she would someday. He closed the door behind him, leaving his kindly fangirl behind. As he started down the stairs he realized he hadn't caught her name. He coughed into his fist and reached for the sludge monster trapped in its plastic prison, "Now let's get you to the station." He froze at his empty pockets, turning them inside out. Just as he started to look around an explosion sounded several blocks away. _Oh no_.

* * *

Holy hell this wound up being longer than I thought. All Mights talks SO much. I wasn't originally going to write this since it's pretty much the same as canon but I figured writing it from All Might's POV might make it interesting, plus it IS how they meet so it feels important to put in the story. Sludgey is back next chapter! Also WOW so much love? (Or maybe I just feel like its a lot because this is my first story? Is this normal? An expected amount of love? I never really post original content anywhere online idk)

Should I write a chapter from Kacchan's POV? If I do, it'll probably be a recap of his childhood with Deku up through the sludge incident. Would that be a thing people want to read? Let me know! I might do it anyways.


	3. Chapter 3

All Might had said to give up on being a hero. He told her it was impossible to be a hero without a quirk. Impossible. She was quirkless. She could never be a hero. It was futile. Had she just been ignoring the truth up until now? She was so stupid. She'd always been weak. Even before finding out she didn't have a quirk, always having to be protected by Kacchan as children, then always being bullied by Kacchan as they grew up. He was the strong one. Not her. Never her. She was the weak one. She was the damsel in distress. The thought made her bitter. " _And what about you? Which do you want to be? The hero or the damsel?"_ Izuku's chest felt unbearably tight. Her fingers unconsciously reached to touch one of the faint lines across her wrists but an explosion from across the street pulled her attention. "Is the fight from earlier still going on?" she asked out loud. She shook her head slowly. It didn't matter anymore.

And yet.

Whether it was years of habit or some sick masochistic need to torment herself she found her legs carrying her to the crowd only for her eyes to widen in shocked horror.

It was the sludge monster. The one she'd thought would kill her. The one All Might had saved her from. She wrapped her arms around her body, shaking in fear and disgust. This was her fault. Someone was suffering and it was because she had selfishly grabbed onto All Might just to try and reaffirm her own silly, childish, useless dream.

Izuku stood there for several long moments. What was _wrong_ with her? How could she have deluded herself for so long? She couldn't run away, though. This was her fault, so she had to stay. She had to face the consequences of her actions, even if there was nothing she could do to change them. When she finally brought herself to look up green eyes met red and then her feet were moving.

She could see him so clearly even from the sidelines. Spiked blonde hair and crimson eyes that she had seen everyday since forever. Kacchan. Kacchan. Kacchan. He looked so scared. Kacchan wasn't afraid of anything, but he was scared now and it was her fault and she had to do something. Anything. She ran past the heroes trying to hold the perimeter, not even registering as some of them called out to her. Her mind was too loud. She'd taken notes on what to do in situations like this. She threw her bag at the monster and managed to hit him in the eye when the contents spilled out. It had only really been meant as a distraction, but it broke his concentration enough that Katsuki was able to break his face free from the sludge and take several gasping breaths. She barely caught his rough voice calling her name, too busy trying to pull him free from the fluid mass of the sludge villain. "What the fuck do you think you're doing, Deku?! You could die, get away! I don't need you! Why would you even care-"

Why would she care? This was Kacchan- of course she cared. She looked up to meet his heated glare, trying not to panic as her frantic clawing at the sludge wasn't doing anything. When had she started crying? She was such a crybaby. Always had been. She was just weak, useless, quirkless Deku. None of that mattered, though,"You looked like you wanted help!"

"DETROIT SMASH!"

Then it was over, rain falling in the aftermath of the hero's attack. It had ended so quickly. One moment she'd thought she was going to watch Kacchan die and be killed herself soon after, the next she was sitting in All Might's imposing but comforting shadow. Even that ended so quickly she hadn't been afforded the time to appreciate just how safe she felt even while being dwarfed by her hero. No, she was whisked to the side, out of the way of heroes collecting the pieces of the sludge villain before he reformed. Those that weren't helping found themselves scolding Izuku for her dangerous and reckless behaviour. She grimaced but nodded her head, tracing her soulmarks lazily as she tried to sort through everything that had happened. She hadn't quite processed the danger. Or maybe she hadn't quite processed that the danger was over? Either way the situation nor her actions had fully sunken in yet and she wasn't sure she wanted them to. She nodded numbly, agreeing with the heroes and apologizing for her rashness. She wasn't a hero after all, she was a civilian, so she ought to act like it and stay where it's safe instead of getting in the way. She wasn't a hero. She shouldn't act like she was.

She peered past the angry heroes at Kacchan. He was _safe_. Somehow she was more relieved about that then she had been when All Might had appeared in the tunnel. She pursed her lips in thought. Ultimately her actions had done little if anything in the battle, but she couldn't entirely regret them. Not when the alternative would have been standing there watching him suffer. She idly switched wrists. He had been so angry at her. He looked angry now, sitting there and being praised for his fortitude, resilience, and most of all the strength of his quirk. He was probably going to yell at her later. Why had he been so mad again? What had he said? In her panic she hadn't really been listening. Something about him not needing her, was it? She knew that already. Kacchan was strong and smart, so why would he ever need _her_? Still, not needing someone and not wanting help were different things. He'd been _scared_. She'd seen it. Maybe that's why he was angry, because she'd seen him scared, or maybe that he'd been scared at all. She blinked and realized he was glaring straight back at her. Flushing as she realized she'd spaced out while staring at him she quickly looked away and set about excusing herself from the scene. She spared a passing glance at All Might. He was all confidence and squared, broad shoulders and rippling muscles. He was all fearless smiles. The sight of the scar on his abdomen came unbidden to her mind. Strange to think that despite his current appearance he, All Might, was not invincible. Who could possibly be powerful enough to hurt him the way he'd been hurt? The thought made a shiver run up her spine. She hoped she never met them. That no one did. Izuku thought of the lanky scarecrow of a man she'd met earlier and smiled. "Bye, All Might. Thanks for saving me."

* * *

The walk home was slow, meandering at best as Izuku tried to sort out her thoughts. "DEKUU!" Izuku jumped at the voice. Kacchan was definitely mad, as predicted. She turned slowly, not in the mood to fight with him. The blonde boy was sticking an accusatory finger at her from where he stood several feet away. " I NEVER asked for your help, and I sure as _hell_ didn't need it! Ya got that?! You didn't help me by throwing yourself into that shitstorm! I was doing fine without your quirkless ass! You can't do anything at all, so don't go trying to act like tough shit! Don't think this means I owe you! Don't fucking look down on me! I don't need you!" He practically snarled out the last sentence and she flinched back at the openly displayed aggression. She took a deep breath and pulled her lips into a practiced smile. She was glad he was okay, that he was still her classic Kacchan. Bitter and oppressive as he may be, it still somehow put her at ease to see him acting like his usual self. It made it seem like maybe things hadn't changed so much after all in her life. Kacchan turned sharply and started stomping off grumpily. She laughed at the sight of him grumbling and dragging his feet as he made his way down the street. Yes, Kacchan was still Kacchan and she was still Deku. Those things would never change, and there was a strange comfort in that.

Her smile faltered as she watched him go. His words were sinking in now. He was right. All she'd done was put herself in danger and make real heroes like All Might rescue her. How could she be so audacious as to want to help people as a hero when she only ever got in the way? Jeez, she felt like shit. Izuku had too much to think about. What to do with her future for starters. Helping people was a must, of course, but-

"I AM HERE!" came the booming voice of All Might, sliding dramatically into her path and making her jump.

"A-All Might!? But you were just surrounded by reporters?"

He laughed heartily at her question. "Getting away from them was a piece of cake! WHY?! Because I am ALL MI- hrk," he spewed blood, reverting to his true form in a poof. Izuku did the first thing she could think of, which was to scream. It felt like she'd been doing a lot of that today. Quickly getting herself together she eyed All Might; he was slouched over as he casually wiped to blood from his pointy chin with his forearm. He looked so fragile, hardly more than skin and bones, but somehow he still seemed to radiate a sense of comfort and security. Even looking as weak as he did, his expression wary instead of fearless, there was an intensity about him that seemed to say he was strong. _It's the eyes_ , she realized. His eyes were bright and piercing and mesmerizing. "Young girl, I came with an apology, a correction, and a suggestion." She blinked at him, confused, but he simply continued, seemingly indifferent to her questioning gaze. "If you hadn't been there and told me about your life I would have been some guy in a suit that was all talk. Thank you."

She was definitely staring at him now. Her lips pulled into a thin line as she slowly tried to word her response. "That's not… It was _my_ fault. Besides I only wound up being in your way, and I said all of those things even though I'm quirkless," she trailed off.

His gaze impossibly seemed to intensify as he looked at her, and Izuku had to actively battle the urge to fidget or touch her soulmarks. Instead she did her best to meet his piercing blue eyes, "Exactly. It's because none other than the meek and quirkless you was there that I was able to take action." Her round eyes widened, the knot in her chest from before coming undone with his words. "The best heroes have stories about them from when they were students and most have the same thing in common. Their bodies took action before they could think!"

Kacchan's wide eyes and helpless expression flashed through her mind, the memory of her legs moving before she realized what was happening. Even though there was nothing she could have done she had, without hesitation, tried to help him. "That was what happened to you, too, wasn't it?" Izuku thought of how her mother had cried and apologized after they found out she was quirkless. She clenched her fist against her heart, doubling over as she fought and lost the battle to keep her tears at bay. Falling to her knees, Izuku nodded and choked out an emotional, "Yeah!"

"You can become a hero."

* * *

Author's Notes: Finally! Izuku is going to get her quirk! I'm not sure where to go from here. I have a lot of fluffy Dad Might stuff with them training, but I also want to get a Bakugou chapter in here. Not sure which should come first.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey, hey, hey! It's real comfy up on top of this fridge. How are you doing way down there?" All Might teased. Izuku flopped forward, exhausted from the effort of trying to move the fridge, let alone the added weight of his hero form. It was only the second day of training and her physical limits were becoming glaringly obvious. They were on a time limit. The UA entrance exam wasn't all that far away, just a few months. It would be close. "You know lots of people move these all the time, even without super strength!"

"Those guys are big, burly men! And with you on top it's gotta be an extra 600 pounds!" Izuku shot back from where she had collapsed on the sand.

"Oh please, I've lost weight. I'm only 550 these days! Besides lots of villains are big, burly men! You need to be stronger than them!"

"That's what your quirk was for I thought?" she argued.

"Puh-lease, look at yourself!" All Might snapped pictures of her huddled form laying on the beach as he he laughed, "You aren't ready for my power!"

"I thought I was worthy!?" her expressions alone made her company worth keeping if you were to ask him. Then, as if to emphasize her distress, her hair tie snapped and her unruly green curls overtook her features. His successor really was a constant source of entertainment for him.

All might could only laugh harder as she tried to reign in the wild hair and whined at him. "I'm talking about your weak body! My quirk is a lot to handle. The combined physical strength of everyone that has ever used it is a hurricane of pure force! An unprepared body like yours wouldn't be able to properly receive it! Your arms and legs would pop off if you tried to!"

Izuku screamed, releasing her hair and letting it floof out again around her face before calming down enough to consider his words, "So this is like some super mega intense gym workout and you're my trainer?"

"You got it!" All Might shot her a thumbs up, "But that's not all! I did some research and this part of the beach apparently used to be beautiful, but it's been a mess for several years now due to littering and neglect!"

"Yeah, the ocean's current deposits trash here regularly so people take advantage to dump their garbage here. Now all the locals just avoid this place." She answered, looking around at the junkyard they stood in, considering what it might look like as a clean beach. All Might nodded. Izuku seemed to be knowledgeable on several subjects outside of heroics he was discovering. She was like a walking encyclopedia. It was convenient if not a bit unsettling at times.

"Heroes these day are all about showing off and catching flashy villains. It used to be service was what mattered. Back then being a hero was about helping the community even if it was sort of lame." All Might flattened the fridge she had been struggling to pull along as he spoke. With the appliance flattened, the brilliant setting sun was revealed on the edge of the water behind him. "You're going to restore the coastline for this entire section of the beach! That is your first step towards being a hero."

He watched as his pupil stared at the brilliant sight in front of her, then she stumbled as she turned around to take in the mountains of trash behind her. "All this? There's so much, though!"

"Well that's what this is for!" All Might pulled out a stack of papers, "My Aim-to-pass American Dream plan! Follow this and you should be able to clean up the beach just in time for the UA entrance exam! I detailed every aspect of your life while was at it!" He'd spent all night working on it, crunching numbers. Needless to say All Might was rather proud of it. "If I'm being honest, this'll be super hard. Think you're up for it?"

Izuku flipped through page after page of the grueling schedule, "Yeah! I have to work harder than anyone else to get in, so what choice do I have, right?" Her eyes were shining despite the quiver in her voice. He nodded, that was one way to look at it. These next 10 months were going to be hell for poor Izuku.

* * *

Days and weeks passed and the two found a routine of sorts. Shortly after a week, Izuku started bringing snacks, healthy but delicious things she made with All Might's carefully planned diet kept in mind. Izuku would work out for several hours before they would take a break to munch on her homemade treats. Then it was back to work. A little over two weeks and she started bringing things specifically for him, best of all was the tea.

"It's delicious, what did you say it was again?" he asked, sipping from the All Might thermos she had packed for him.

"It's just orange tea with mint leaves mixed in. Nothing fancy," she flushed as she spoke. "I can bring you some herbal mixes if you'd like? Something easy to digest?"

All Might brightened considerably at the idea, "I would love that!" It quickly became apparent that Izuku was most at home in the kitchen. Everything she made for them to eat was delicious, and she spoke happily about learning to cook with her mother. All Might was admittedly shit when it came to cooking or taking care of himself at all, really. Izuku was generous and kind, but not overly pushy or judgmental about his lack of self care. It was something he appreciated greatly about her. She often recommended simple and healthy recipes he could try himself in addition to the light snacks she made for them. Trading recipes and talking about what they could and should not eat became commonplace during these break. Izuku was limited by the diet All Might had come up with to get her in shape, while he was restricted by his surgeries, specifically his gastrectomy.

Other parts of their routine were less enjoyable, like the more or less hourly snapping sound that signaled another hair tie or rubber band had fallen victim to her curls. The snap was almost always followed by a groan and the sound of muttering while Izuku put down whatever she was moving at that moment to find All Might. He had become the keeper of the hair ties and rubber bands, mostly rubber bands. At least once a day Izuku complained that she might as well just shave her head and be rid of the burden of hair completely. She would go off about all the ways long hair could get in the way in a skirmish or be used against her. All Might usually found himself coming to the defense of her hair, once even swiping a pair of scissors out of her hands on a particularly humid day when her curls had been more of a nuisance than usual. He also became the keeper of the emergency mouthwash and ginger ale after she had exerted herself to the point of puking twice. Before tests, All Might would trade in his usual variation of teasing and inspirational words to drilling her during her workouts with flash cards.

Ultimately, while All Might found he had his favorite parts of the routine in addition to his least favorites, there wasn't really one part of it he disliked outright. Anytime spent with his student was either exceptionally productive, filling him with a sense of pride or genuinely fun and enjoyable. Even when Izuku pushed herself too hard or complained a little more than he thought was necessary, her company was more than worth it. He found he sincerely looked forward to spending time with her each day, even with the deadline looming in the distance.

* * *

All Might didn't know how he got himself into this. Was this some sort of punishment for something he'd done? Divine retribution? He stood awkwardly in the middle of the sports store, blinking around in confusion. They were about halfway through their 10 month regiment. Izuku had been exhausted and sore, both things he had expected. The diet he prescribed had been designed to combat the physical stress of her training and he'd made sure she stretched before and after each day of work. That was not the problem. The problem was that her back hurt. All Might couldn't quite seem to understand why her back of all things hurt? At least not why it seemed to be bothering her more than any of the rest of her body. He had told her as much only for the girl to turn a vivid and wholly worrisome shade of red. She had stuttered and flailed for a full minute before running away to move trash on the side of the beach farthest from him. It had seemed to make sense to come to a sports store to ask questions, but he wasn't sure where to start, and the longer he stood there the sillier the whole idea seemed. Maybe he should just leave and try to confront his pupil about it after all?

"Can I help you, sir?" All Might startled, jumping a bit at the sunny voice. He turned to look at a portly brunette woman with a tag that labeled her MANAGER RINA. She was looking at him expectantly, "Are you looking for anything specific?"

"Ah- not for me. My- um- my girl has been saying her back hurts while she's working out, but I can't think of what could be wrong. She seems too embarrassed to talk to me, so- um. Sorry, this is weird isn't it?" He was a sure his face was almost as red by now as Izuku's had been.

"Oh, your daughter? Not to worry, girls always have trouble talking to their fathers about their more feminine based problems." All Might stared at her quizzically. Feminine? It was a girl problem? Rina was waving him on to follow her as she glided towards the women's section. "It's her chest, you see. If a girl doesn't have proper support, especially while working out, it can lead to some serious back pain. While not usually a problem for smaller girls, it can actually cause long term back problems for larger girls if they don't get good support." Her chest? Oh, god no wonder she'd been embarrassed when he had asked. He felt his face heat up further. "About how old is your daughter?" She was looking at him again, chipper smile and patient eyes.

"She's not- um- she's about 15 now?" He was pretty sure Izuku was 15? Right? That's how old students entering high school usually were, though that was still a few months away. When was the girl's birthday anyway?

"Alrighty, so she's training for high school? Let me guess- the hero course, right?"

All Might couldn't stop the smile from coming to his face, "Yes! She wants to get into UA, so we're trying to get her ready for the entrance exam!"

"UA? Way to aim high! Good for her, you must be awfully proud." All Might smiled wider. He was. The more time he spent with Izuku the more he was amazed by the girl. "And what sort of quirk does she have?"

"Hm? Oh- um. Power enhancement?" He stumbled, thinking of One for All.

"So she'll be wanting something extra sturdy and durable then. We have apparel to help equip all sorts of different quirks, so you came to the right place!" He watched as she turned and they were walking into an aisle of bras. Oh boy, was his face red now. This is not how he'd expected his day to go. This couldn't possibly get more awkward, "And what size is her bust?"

He spoke too soon. Oh boy, did he speak to soon. All Might was doing a rather impressive impression of Izuku when he had asked why her back hurt in the first place. "I- um I'm really not- I wouldn't- what I mean to say is that I have no idea- she's- I don't think-"

Sensing his apparent distress at the question, Rina smiled, "That's alright. Most fathers are too embarrassed to do this sort of shopping for their daughters at all. I think it's great that you came out to help her, and besides we can figure it out!" He blinked at her again. He hadn't meant to lead her to the conclusion the he was Izuku's father, but he was in too deep to turn back now. Besides wouldn't it be strange for him to do this if he weren't her father? Come to think of it, was he overstepping his boundaries with the girl? What would her actual father say if he knew some middle aged stranger was bra shopping for his daughter? Oh boy, he was overstepping big-time, wasn't he? "How tall is she?" Thank God for Rina's benign question pulling him out of his downward spiral.

"Um- this tallish?" He held out his hand at about where the top of Izuku's head reached on him.

"So about 4'9" or 4'10", then. All Might nodded, that sounded about right. "And is she petite or curvy or-?"

"Small. Very, very, _very_ small." He thought back to how he had assumed she was 12 or younger when they met. She really looked like a child. At least she would if it weren't for-

"And about how big is her chest?" His face quickly resumed its red status from earlier. All Might refused to make eye contact as he made vague gestures with his hands.

Rina smiled, ever patient, "So on the bustier side then?" She turned and rifled around a rack to her side for a bit before pulling out a few differently colored- were those crop tops? They didn't quite look like bras, much to his relief. Right, they're sports bras. It's not like he was buying lingerie for her; he was buying her something useful to help make her training easier. "These should fit, but just in case, hold onto your receipt, so you can exchange them for the right size. Next time you come, you should bring her along, too. That way she can try things on and see what she likes," Rina explained while handing him the small pile of tops. "Was there anything else you wanted to look at while you were here?"

All Might was about to say no, but thought for a moment. Rina was awfully helpful and seemed to know a lot, "Her hair ties keep breaking. Do you have anything that would be better for keeping her hair out of her face?"

Rina blinked, and then smiled widely. She seemed beyond pleased that he hadn't simply dismissed her, "Oh my! Well that's no good? Why do her ties keep breaking?"

"She's got really curly hair," All Might made a sweeping gesture with his free hand to emphasize how _big_ her hair was.

"Hair ties might not be the right fit then." Rina was walking again and he quickly followed, "She could try scrunchies or ribbons probably. They're a lot cuter than hair ties in my personal opinion, and comfier, too. In fact I buy almost exclusively scrunchies for my own girls."

All Might gaped at the wide selection of hair things in front of him. "Between the two which is better for really thick hair?"

"Ribbons, I'd bet. There's no elastic, so you don't have to worry about them snapping, just tie them however tightly you need." Rina and All Might spent the next 30 minutes picking out ribbons of varying colors and patterns, casually going back and forth and sharing stories of their 'children'. He learned that Rina had 3 kids, 2 girls and 1 boy. Her middle child, one of the girls, wanted to be a hero, too, but wasn't aiming for UA. She had the same quirk as Rina, the ability to spit out seeds for different plants and make them grow on the spot. It was useful for cooking and medicine, Rina explained, but she wasn't sure how it would fare against villains. All Might talked about Izuku, her love of strawberry ice cream, the funny responses she had to things, her tendency to mutter, her hero notebooks- "Sounds like you two get along really well."

"Huh?"

"Well it seems like you spend a lot of time with her and pay attention to her likes and dislikes. I hardly ever see fathers invest that sort of time and attention into their daughter's lives. I think it's wonderful you two are so close." He blushed, thinking about it for a moment. He did think very highly of Izuku. He tried his best to pay attention to her during their time together. In a way, she did feel like a daughter to him. He smiled. The two finished up, All Might even finding an All Might themed ribbon. Rina had laughed and said those were usually popular with elementary schoolers.

"She's a fan."

"Well then I'm sure she'll love it."

Rina rung up the ribbons and sports bras and All Might was on his way to meet Izuku at the beach. Checking the time, he was running late. He may have gotten carried away with the ribbons. He shifted into his hero mode and took off for the beach, purchases in hand. When he reached the beach and saw Izuku, she was carrying a toaster oven and what looked like a sink under each arm. He jumped down in front of her, dramatically announcing his arrival, "I AM HERE!" Izuku eeped, dropping her appliances and looking up at his towering form. "And I bring gifts!"

She peered curiously at the bags he held in each hand, "Gifts? For me?"

"But of course!" He just had to be confident and give her the bags before his embarrassment at the situation caught up with him. He held out the bags to her and after a brief moment of hesitation she gingerly lifted the bags from his hands.

"What for though? I haven't done anything to-"

"Why should I need a reason to get things that could help my pupil with her training?! As your mentor it's my responsibility to make sure you have the tools to succeed!"

Her face lit up, "Wow, to help me train? What are they? Ankle weights or maybe-" she pulled out one of the sports bras. Slowly, Izuku's face turned red like a tomato. She squeaked and shoved the bra back into the bag before holding the top of the bag open and peering inside. "W-Why would you-"

"You said your back- bleh," All Might was back to his slim skeleton form, so much for looking confident. He wiped the blood from his face quickly. "You said your back hurt." She was probably upset that he had gone ahead and bought her something that seemed so personal. He braced himself for her response.

"That- That's actually really thoughtful. You didn't have to do this." Her cheeks were still pink but she had a small smile.

"I wanted to. I mean I didn't realize exactly what I was getting myself into, but it turned out alright." Honestly as if Izuku would ever be anything but pleased with a gift from her hero, much less angry. They'd gotten past the hero worship, but she was still a fangirl after all. "Are they the right size? The lady at the store picked them," he said, scratching the back of his head.

Izuku reached into the bag, checking the label, "Looks like it. These are so nice." She had pulled out the same bra from before and was seemingly admiring the colorful pattern. "Is the other bag the same?" she asked looking past the brightly colored cloth at All Might.

"No, it's got other stuff I thought might help. I picked out a lot of them myself," he was getting weirdly excited now. If she liked the bras Rina had picked, then she would love the ribbons he'd chosen himself, right?

Izuku perked up immediately at hearing that he had chosen the other bag's contents for her himself and she eagerly reached for it. "They're ribbons!?"

"For your hair! The ties kept snapping and I don't imagine the rubber bands are very comfortable."

"I love them!" she had pulled out several of the color blocked and patterned ribbons and was practically beaming at them. Then she pulled out the All Might themed ribbon. There was a shrill sort of pterodactyl sound and she was on her feet, bowing deeply. "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! I love it! I love it soo soo much I'll treasure it forever!"

He smiled, waving his hands in front of him, "That's not necessary; I'm just glad you like it."

"Can you help me put one of these on?" she asked holding out some of the ribbons.

"Of course!" Izuku's hair was a villain in itself, he was certain. The next 20 minutes were spent warring her hair into not just one but several ribbons, resulting in an almost braided look. After that, it was back to training, Izuku's bags carefully set aside so that they wouldn't get mixed up in the trash. Izuku didn't stop smiling the rest of the day.

* * *

It was after six months of training together that All Might found himself not listening to his student's muttering about the pros and cons of capes in hero costumes that he blurted out, "Why do you that?" He was the king of tact.

"Huh? Do what?"

"That." All Might nodded his head toward where her index finger was still touching the thin blue line on her right wrist. She looked down and stared at her wrist for several moments before he prompted, "You trace those whenever you're rambling."

"I guess I do, yeah," she admonished. She was quiet, but that was so unlike how she usually was and so unlike most teenaged girls when it came to the topic of soulmarks.

"They're your soulmarks, right?"

"Yeah." Izuku had gone silent and it was not a comfortable silence between them. He shifted and racked his brain for something to say.

"You like them? Your marks?"

"I guess so. They're just lines right now. Who knows what they'll look like when they activate."

"That's a good point." He pondered over his own blotchy color patch. It would never be beautiful, not under all that scar tissue and stitching.

"Do you like yours?"

"Hard to say, since I'm in the same boat as you," he laughed.

"You mean your mark's not active?" She seemed genuinely surprised, why though, he wasn't sure.

"Is that weird?" he flushed, rubbing the back of his head. Somehow it was a bit embarrassing to admit it now. He'd never given soulmates or marks much thought when he was young. He'd been too busy, first with wanting to be a hero, then becoming a hero, then being the number one hero. He'd never really stopped to consider romance.

"NO!" She waved her arms wildly, "It's not weird! Lots of people's marks never activate or if they do, they can't figure out who their soulmate is anyway! After all the activation requirements vary from person to person, some people only need to see their soulmate's face and other's have to hear their names or say their names out loud and other people have to physically touch each other!" She was rambling again but he smiled. He half listened while nibbling on his treat as she went, "Lots of people don't believe in the mark system anyway and just get married or date because they like each other, too. My parents weren't soulmates, but they started dating and got married and had me anyway because they loved each other-"

"What?" It was rare that married a couple, especially a married couple with children weren't soulmates. Statistically at least half of such couples wound up being broken homes. He looked at Izuku carefully. He'd never imagined she could come from anywhere but a happy home. Though come to think of it he'd never asked about her home life and she'd only ever talked about her mother.

"My parents- they weren't soulmates. I mean- probably not. My mom's mark activated during a natural disaster when she was helping people out of the rubble, so she has no idea who it was for. Flowers are hard to attach to people unless you know them personally. My dad's mark was on his hand, but it got covered up by a burn from an incident with his quirk when he was young. They met each other during the disaster, but they always sort of figured that they probably weren't soulmates. It didn't matter to them, y'know? They loved each other and that's what mattered."

She looked sincere, it didn't matter. Not to her at least. Most kids whose parents weren't destined felt like they were accidents even when they weren't. Like somehow their parents not being meant to be translated to their existence not being meant to be. It was all silly in All Might's mind. Believing in fate and destiny was fine, but saying it completely controlled your life and who you were seemed ludicrous to him. He was never meant to be a hero, nor was Izuku. He was a hero because he worked for it, just as Izuku was. "That's a good way to think of it. Love is what matters most in relationships, not marks. Though come to think of it, you've never told me about your father?"

She visibly stiffened and he immediately regretted voicing his question. "I don't remember much. He went away when I was little, but Mom says he could breathe fire." She wasn't looking at him as she spoke. And went away? That was the most vague phrasing ever! Did he die? Leave her family? Did they divorce? Still he didn't want to push the subject further when it clearly made her uncomfortable. Besides it really wasn't any of his business anyway. Izuku stretched, "I think I'm gonna get back to it!" She stood up and jogged back over to the truck she'd been hauling across the beach earlier. Things were fine as they were. At least with or without their soulmates, they'd still have _this_. They'd still have each other and their shared dream for the future: for Izuku to become a great hero.

* * *

All Might was peeved. He was not angry, just annoyed. "You've been doing extra workouts." Izuku laid in an exhausted heap on the ground in front of him. He'd worked so hard on that schedule, too. "The Aim-to-Pass American Dream Plan was made for you, with your body in mind. It was fine-tuned so that you would progress swiftly, but without overdoing it. That'll have the opposite effect we want! You'll hurt yourself."

"I have to work harder!" her voice was muffled, at least partially by the ground, but if prior experience could be trusted she was probably crying, too. "I don't just want to get in. I want to excel!" she pushed herself up off the ground. Lifting her face, All Might's suspicion about her crying was confirmed. Izuku met his eyes then and All Might found himself frozen, "I want to be like you! The greatest hero in the world! So I have to keep trying until I have what it takes to do that!"

" _I want people to see my fearless smile and feel safe. Just like you"_ her voice from the roof echoed in his mind. This girl was going to be the death of him with that stubborn determination. He pushed himself into hero mode, "That's the gusto I like to see, fangirl! But now is not the time to rush ahead! HAVE NO FEAR! This old man can get you back on track!" He lifted her up in the air as he spoke.

Izuku squeaked, "You're not an old man, All Might." He just laughed at that because _oh yes he was too an old man_. He'd fight her on that.

* * *

All Might parked in the lot near the beach and breathed out, watching his breath curl out and disperse in the chilled February air. It was the day of the exam. The deadline they had set for Izuku 10 months ago. The day to pass the torch onto the next generation.

That was when he heard the screaming and- oh god was that Izuku?! He ran to the edge of the lot and looked up to see none other than his successor screaming on top of a gargantuan mountain of garbage. She was dressed in her usual sweatpants and had the vivid purple and green sports bra on, heaven knew where she'd abandoned her oversized T-shirt or sweat jacket this time. She was sweaty and tired, huffing from her triumphant perch on top of the garbage mountain. All Might hustled over to where he could see the beach, "Holy hell, little lady! You even cleaned up outside of where I told you to! There's not a speck of trash anywhere on this beach!" He was in awe, she'd exceeded his wildest expectations and done so with mere minutes to go. "Oh my GOODNESS!" He shifted into hero mode in his excitement. Which was convenient as Izuku's body seemed to think that was the perfect moment to collapse and fall off the trash heap. He easily sped over and caught her bridal style, "Great job!"

"I finished it, All Might." She gave him a weak smile, looking close to passing out. He was blown away; she'd really pulled through so splendidly. "Am I- am I ready now y'think?"

"Yeah, you did good, little lady. I'm impressed. Naturally I knew you could do it, but this is beyond!" He gently placed her down to stand on her own two feet and reached for his cell phone. She huffed, supporting her upper body by holding her knees. "Look at this," he held out the phone displaying the picture of her after her face-flop with the fridge. She was dusted in a thin layer of sand, cheeks pink, tears in her one visible eye, and absolutely everything else was covered by a mess of curls. In the picture she looked weak and disheveled. "It's a picture of you crying 10 months ago!" She looked at him oddly, like he was making fun of her. "Look how far you've come!" She stood up straight and glanced down at her body, as if only just now taking in the toned muscles she'd developed over their time training. "You've become a splendid vessel, capable of inheriting my power!"

"I feel like I'm cheating," she said. Izuku stared at her hand, "Do I really deserve this? You did so much for me, how did I get this lucky?" She was crying again, but he'd gotten used to that by now.

All Might shook his head. This girl really was a strange one. Even after all this time, she still didn't think she deserved this? He laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder, "It was thanks to your own hard work, not mine. Now for your reward, Izuku Midoriya!"

"Yessir!"

All Might plucked a golden thread from his hair, "Someone once told me that something you get because you're lucky and something you are given because you are recognized are different in essence. One is an accident while the other is a reward! Take that to heart, little lady. This gift is something you earned through your own hard work." He held out the strand of hair, "Now eat this."

"Huh?"

All Might rubbed the back of his head, "You've got to take in some of my DNA if you want to inherit my power, that's just how this works."

"This isn't exactly what I pictured."

"Oh, who cares, just hurry up and eat it! You don't want to be late for the exam!" Rather unwillingly, she did wind up swallowing the hair.

* * *

Sooo this wound up long. Writing goes so much faster when working with original scenes, which hey finally it only took four chapters. I was going to write a scene where Izuku sends All Might to buy pads, too, but I think he suffered enough on his bra mission. At least for now. Also, we get a little more about soulmarks in this world. Which hey, might be important in upcoming chapters. The next chapter is going to be about Kacchan! Yaaaaay! Honestly I'm pretty pumped to write it. After that we get the entrance exam. I really should go through everything and edit, but I want to get all of this out there first. Maybe once I'm done with season one I'll take a break and go through everything with a fine toothed comb, but for now you get shitty drafts, sorry.


	5. Chapter 5

Bakugou Katsuki hated soulmarks. More specifically he hated his soulmark. He hadn't always hated the colors that stretched across his back and chest. As a child, before his mark had activated, he had loved the colorful freckles that decorated his shoulderblades. He'd ask his parents constantly what they would become. Would they be like the sparks running across his mother's chest, half visible over her low collared shirts, that came to life when his father touched her or paid her a compliment? Or maybe they would be like those vividly colored oranges and orange blossoms that completely filled his father's right arm, like a sleeve that shifted season's according to their relationship? At least his father said it did. Katsuki had never seen the sleeve look different than the lush green leaves, full blossoms, and ripe fruits that indicated they were both happy. He tried to connect his freckles like constellations with a marker, but couldn't reach. He tried to count them in the mirror, but to no avail. He wanted them to come to life on his skin. He was, as with most things, impatient for something to happen with the dots on his back. He wanted his mark to come alive just as badly as he wanted to get his quirk. His mother would coo and tell him that patience was a virtue, whatever that meant. Katsuki didn't want to be patient, he wanted something to _happen_. Soon.

At the prospect of school, of meeting children his age, some of which might even have their quirks already, he became eager. He would make friends and they could all compare their marks and their quirks and watch videos of heroes together and it would be great. The first day of school came and Katsuki quickly wriggled out of his mother's hug before she could plant a goodbye kiss on his cheek. He wanted to meet his classmates. His mother huffed, "Just be nice and try to make friends, _please_." He rolled his eyes because of course he was going to make friends that's the only reason he came to school to start with. There were so many kids! He peered around the large room, from the play kitchen to the slide to the rug with the bean bag chairs. Preschool looked great. Katsuki eagerly set about talking and playing with other kids as parents came and went, leaving behind their children on their ways to work. Things were going fairly well, though he was disappointed none of his peers had quirks or active soulmarks yet. His disappointment vanished completely upon looking at the door as a slim woman hurried in, apologizing for her lateness. The pretty woman wasn't what mattered, though. The little girl tucked behind her, hands balled in the woman's skirts, was what was important. He felt something soft fan out across his back and he grinned, bounding over to her. As the woman- probably her mother- talked to their teacher Katsuki stared at her openly. She was perfect. Perhaps not what he had imagined for his soulmate, but something about her felt inexplicably right as he took in her appearance. She felt almost familiar, like it was silly to have imagined his soulmate as anyone else. Of course it was her. She had an unruly mop of green curls and matching green eyes. She was short, smaller than him in every way, really. Light skin flushed with her nervousness, obvious in the way she fidgeted and tried to draw her mother's skirts around her like she could hide in them. Immediately Katsuki's favorite thing was the freckles that decorated her cheeks. They matched.

He walked up to her, "I'm Katsuki. What's your name?"

"I- Izuku. Midoriya." There was another fluttery, stretching feeling across his back, as if he needed anymore confirmation that he had found his soulmate. She was looking at him apprehensively from the safety of her mother's skirt. That wouldn't do. He reached out, swiping her hand and pulling it easily from the fabric shield.

"We're friends from now on. Go it?" Not waiting for an answer he yanked on her hand, dragging her away from the two adults who had stopped their conversation to watch the peculiar interaction. Izuku made an odd squeaking noise, but shuffled after him regardless. He smiled at the sound. Her voice was soft and quiet, not like his mother's squawking or his father's raspy drawl or the teacher's high-pitched nagging. The squeaking sound was cute, too. Like a small animal.

"K- Kacchan, can you not pull so hard? It- it hurts." He stopped and turned to look at her red face and wide eyes and the way she bit her lip out of nervousness. He released her hand, and frowned at the sudden weight in his chest at the loss of contact. Did she not like him? Did she not want to be friends? That wasn't possible, he was awesome and everyone else seemed to like him.

Suddenly something caught up with him, "Kacchan?"

"Oh! I- I can call you something else if you want! K- Katsuki-kun? It's just- I thought since we're going to be friends, and since you're the first- you should have a nickname? It's okay if you don't like it! I won't use it again!" Her face had gone even redder and she was waving her hands in front of her. Her eyes looked wet. But she had said they were friends.

"Kacchan's fine. But you're the only one allowed to use it." Honestly Katsuki wasn't terribly fond of the name, but he liked the way it sounded when she said it. Besides, his parents had nicknames for each other so it had to be okay for his soulmate to call him something silly if she wanted.

Izuku nodded her head fervently and beamed at him, "Kacchan!"

Something in his chest stuttered and his insides went gooey at the look she gave him. He blushed, turning away from her, but taking her hand again. This time he let her walk a step behind him as he led her to where he'd been playing before.

The two played and talked all day. Her favorite hero was All Might, and she thought heroes were cool and wanted to be one when she grew up, same as him. That was where the similarities seemed to end, though. She was soft spoken while he was loud. She got nervous easily and cried at the smallest things while he boasted his bravery by retrieving one of her flowery hair clips back from a thieving squirrel during their recess. She liked strawberry ice cream and he liked mint. None of these differences seemed to stop them from getting along, though. By the end of the school day Izuku was easily his favorite person in class; he liked her even better than they boy he'd dared to eat a bug and actually done it. If not for the occasional fluttering or stretching feeling that tickled up and down his spine he might have actually forgotten about the soulmate part. As it was, he couldn't have been happier. She was wonderful and fun and liked heroes every bit as much as he did. She was perfect and she was his.

When he got home he dropped his things in the doorway and bolted for the bathroom, hastily pulling his shirt over his head to toss it to the side. Katsuki pulled himself onto the bathroom counter and twisted in front of the mirror to see his back. Where just a few hours ago there had been an array of colorful freckles there was now a bright bushel of flowers. Soft pink and white blooms mixed with purples and hints of green on the insides of some of the flowers as well as where leaves and stems filled the spaces between petals. It was a beautiful bouquet that stretched across nearly the whole of his small back. He grinned at the flowers in the mirror. He didn't know what sort of flowers they were or what they had to do with Izuku, but he didn't care. After all he didn't understand what the oranges and flowers on his father's arm meant about his mother. That didn't matter. What mattered was that they were right there on his back because of Izuku. A permanent reminder on his skin of the feelings she brought to life in him. A permanent reminder that she was his and he was hers. Katsuki couldn't have been more pleased. His first day of school turned out not to be disappointing after all.

* * *

Everything went wrong when their teacher pulled out the lesson on soulmarks. Naturally he sat next to Izuku. The two were hardly ever far from each other during school or even after. Katsuki didn't care about the lesson, and why would he? His mark had already activated and his soulmate was right next to him. There wasn't anything else to know. He stared at the ceiling, lost in thought, tuning out the teacher's shrill voice. Most of the other students, the girls especially, were hanging on every word. Izuku was one of them, but she was a dork, so of course she was. She _always_ listened to the lessons, even when they were really, _really_ boring. Katsuki was calm, the tips of his fingers touching Izuku's and the mark on his back felt soft and light. Then the girl on the other side of Izuku turned to her, "You've got two, right? Does that mean you've got two soulmates?" _What_?

Izuku turned towards the other girl animatedly, "I don't think so. They sort of match each other, y'know? So I think that means they're both for the same person? Maybe they're gonna represent our relationship or something? Like two halves of a whole?" Katsuki turned his head, laser focused on his giggling soulmate. Two marks? ' _Gonna represent'_? As in her mark- marks?- weren't active yet? His fingertips jolted away from hers as though he'd been burned.

"That's so romantic!"

"I guess so," Izuku looked down, blushing. She still hadn't noticed the sudden shift in her best friend's demeanor when she turned to him and asked, "What about your soulmark, Kacchan?"

"It's on my back." She blinked at him at the curt response, but seemed satisfied with his answer as she turned back to the other girl. The dumb girl with dumb elephant ears and tusks sticking out of her dumb face. Katsuki glared at the dummy for several minutes before she got uncomfortable and moved to sit somewhere else. Izuku turned her attention back to the teacher. He moved his glare from the dumb girl with her big dumb mouth and her dumb questions about soulmarks to Izuku. His eyes ran over her form up and down. How had the dummy known she had two marks? They weren't close- he would know. So they had to be visib- oh. There. He stared, wide-eyed at her wrist. How had he never noticed? There was a thin blue line that circled her right wrist. When he glanced to her left side he saw a matching orange line there. They were pale, even against her already pale skin- easily overlooked if one wasn't _looking_ , but clearly there if they were. How had he never noticed? Not when they played together or held hands, not when he pulled her up behind him on the jungle gym, not when she scraped her knees and cried the whole 20 minute walk home from the playground even though he'd carried her. _How had he not seen_?

Katsuki glared at the thin lines as if he could will them out of existence. Suddenly the whole world felt terribly wrong. Izuku was his soulmate. But he was not hers. That couldn't be right. Distantly he heard the shrill squawk of their teacher as she talked about unrequited soulmarks. Marks that someone had for a person whose marks were not for them. One-sided. Rare and tragic. His insides felt hot. It was nothing like the pleasant warmth he felt when he let Izuku hold his hand or when she would kiss one of his playground injuries. No this was hot and it _hurt_ and it burned him the way his quirk burned everything it touched. No. He refused to accept this. He was great. He deserved to be with his soulmate. He had to be way better than whoever those flimsy looking stripes were for. He was sure of it. Screw whoever's marks were on Izuku's body. He met her first. His mark activated first. He was the one that got to hold her hand and dry her tears and make fun of her crooked pigtails. He was the one with the best quirk and he deserved her. Izuku was his.

He reminds himself constantly after that. He's the best. Izuku is his soulmate. He deserves her. It eats at him though. The idea that somehow, in some way, her soulmate is better than him. That she is too good for him and he is not enough. Somehow it almost comes as a relief when they find out she's quirkless. The other students turn on her instantly. He tells himself her soulmate will be the same. They will not want her and she will stay with him. He tells himself that Deku is weak, that she needs him to protect her because he is strong. He tells himself that she needs him and ignores the thought in the back of his head that taunts, " _It's the other way around_."

Katsuki lead a gaggle of his friends through the woods, Deku bringing up the rear as she hurried to catch up with the boys. They were all bigger than her and she struggled to keep pace. Katsuki adjusted his own speed at the front to be sure that she was always in sight of the group. The boys behind him laughed at the quirkless girl that was always chasing after Katsuki. He didn't correct them. When they reached the bridge Katsuki slipped. Pain shot up his arm as he looked up at the bridge where his friends were watching. Their concern was quickly laughed off because he was Katsuki Bakugou, so of course he wouldn't be hurt over something as silly as falling into the river. He grinned even as his palm throbbed. Then Deku was crashing out of the trees as she ran into the river, twigs and leaves catching in her curls, hand outstretched for him to take. "Kacchan, are you okay?" The gesture seems so easy for her, but it infuriates and hurts him. Her genuine and unsolicited concern hurts more than the scrapes on his hands that he would later hide from the other boys. He doesn't need her worry. He doesn't need her help. He's the strong one, not her. She's weak. It hits him hard. _She_ doesn't deserve _him_. So why does he still want her? Why is she the one that doesn't have to feel anything when they touch? Why is she the one with someone else's mark on her body? Why isn't she _his_?

The faint lines on her wrists enrage him and he stands up and pushes her down before he knows what he's doing. He doesn't need her. He doesn't need her concern or her hands or her help. He doesn't need her smile or her secrets or her dreams. He doesn't need her mark.

Katsuki Bakugou doesn't need his soulmate.

* * *

Katsuki Bakugou hated people. More specifically he hated his classmates. They were all weak losers with pathetic quirks acting like they were on his level. They weren't. Not even close. It was laughable, really. He just had to remind all of them how insignificant they were in comparison to him, "Oi! Don't lump me in with these extras!" The raucous backlash from said extras gave him a headache. "Just shut up, you damn losers!" He yelled over the classroom.

His dumbass teacher drawled on, like his class wasn't about to become a battlefield, "If I remember correctly you're aiming for UA, right?" The man looked bored out of his gourd as he thumbed through some papers on his clipboard.

His peers went quiet momentarily before bursting into hushed conversations of awe and disbelief that he would aim as high as the prestigious UA. He grinned widely, "That kinda thinkin' is why you're all just extras!" He sat up and swiftly leapt onto his desk, high above the riffraff he shared a school with. "I aced the mock test! I'm the only one from this shithole that could possibly make it into UA! I'll surpass All Might himself and become the top hero!"

"Midoriya, you wanted to go to UA, too, right?" He froze. The class froze as well, though it was only for a heartbeat as they quickly erupted in laughter and jeers.

"Midoriya? No way!"

"You can't become a hero by studying hard!"

Something ugly twisted in his gut. How dare Deku try to act like she was his equal. She was beneath him, even further than the rest of them. He jumped from his desk, slamming his fist down on hers as he landed. The force pushed her backwards to the floor as her desk lit up. "Hey, shitty Deku! You don't even have a quirk, but you're trying to compete on my level?" His face felt hot, anger coursing through him. She was weak. Weak, quirkless, crybaby Deku.

"No! Kacchan! I'm not trying to compete or anything!" She was waving her hands in front of her as she backed away from him. She looked terrified, but still called him Kacchan. He felt the familiar tightening around his torso making it hard to breathe. He hated soulmarks. He hated Deku. "It's just it's been my dream since we were little and- and I won't know unless I try…" Her back met the wall as he continued to advance on her. He had her cornered like a wolf cornering a rabbit.

"Unless you try my ass! You taking the test for fun or something?! You're quirkless, what're you supposed to do?" he was still moving forward until he felt a hand on his shoulder. One of his buddies nodded towards their teacher as her reestablished some semblance of order in his classroom. He scoffed and moved leisurely back to his seat. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Deku slowly stand up, brushing the dirt from her skirt and lifting her charred desk upright before taking her seat. His expression softened at her somber behavior. She stared at her desk blankly and lifted one of her hands to lazily trace the line that encircled it. Immediately his anger from before returned and he turned to glare at the chalkboard as if it had done him some terrible personal slight. He'd set Deku straight later.

He peered around the quickly emptying classroom with vague interest. Deku was probably still spaced out. She had a habit of zoning out completely at times, too caught up in her own nerdy fucking head. There were only a few stragglers now, but they wouldn't stop him. Katsuki stood up and walked casually over to Deku's desk. She was packing up her things from the day, the only thing left was a well worn notebook on her desk. As she reached for it Katsuki picked it up easily, making sure it was out of her reach as he looked at her. "I'm not done talking, Deku."

Some guys came up behind him but he didn't take his eyes from the squirming girl in front of him. When they asked after what he had he lifted the notebook up for them to see. "Hero Analysis for the Future? Seriously?" The two boys broke out into obnoxious laughter.

"Give it back!" Deku stood, face red, as she reached for the book. Katsuki easily lifted it higher, out of her reach, then then slapped the cover causing it to burst into flames. He vaguely heard her say something, but turned and tossed the charred papers out the window anyway. She ought to know better than to keep aiming for the impossible. Being a hero? Useless Deku couldn't do it.

"I'm going to have the title of being the only student from this shitty junior high to make it into UA, got it?" He brought his hand down harder than necessary on her shoulder and let his quirk smolder, her uniform smoking as a result. He bit down the flutter along his spine that touching her brought. Fucking soulmarks. He gripped harder. "So don't apply to UA, fucking nerd." With that he turned and stalked out, followed by the other two boys. He heard them making loud remarks about how her as he went. It irked him even though it was along the same lines of what he had said. A wicked grin came to his face as he paused in the doorway, "If you really want to be a hero, here's an idea! Believe you'll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof!" He saw her turn angrily to him, and had to hold back the biting laugh as he flared his quirk. Her mouth clamped shut, eyes watery, lips quivering. He walked away then, wincing as he felt the coiling tightness around his ribs accompanied by the sharp prickling across his torso. He'd just have to bare the pain.

* * *

The three boys made their way through the alleys of the city, Katsuki in the lead. "Weren't you a tad harsh on Midoriya back there? I mean, you two used to be friends, right?"

He tensed knowing he had gone a bit overboard. "It's her own fault for getting in my way." It wasn't his fault Deku always pushed his buttons in her way. That everything she did did _something_ to him and that alone made him so _angry_. Katsuki kicked out at a piece of garbage in the alley.

"Don't let it get to you."

"She's acting like a fucking kid, talking about dreams like an idiot." He crushed the soda can he had emptied earlier, making it explode with his quirk. "Just think about her pisses me off!"

The other two shared a somewhat knowing look with each other. "Still Midoriya is kind of cute that way, right? Trying hard despite the obstacles?"

"It's never gonna get her anywhere, though. She'd make a great damsel, though. With that face and that rack." He made a sweeping gesture around his chest. The two boys were holding back laughter, knowing their blonde friend was on the verge of blowing a crater in the alley. To them, he always seemed to get unusually worked up about Midoriya. It was too easy.

"The hell's wrong with you-!" His friends were stiff, eyes wide like he had never seen them. He turned apprehensively to follow their stares.

"An invisibility cloak with a great quirk!" The fuck was that thing? Whatever it was it lunged at him with alarming and unexpected speed. He couldn't get away. Before he could understand what was happening it was on him, wrapping around him, suffocating him. He couldn't breathe. So he did the only thing he could think of, the one thing he could count on; he used his quirk. After that Katsuki's life was quickly narrowed down to three simple things: pain, fear, and desperation.

He didn't know how long it went on like that. He was vaguely, distantly aware that there were voices, heroes that weren't helping him, a crowd watching his suffering. He thought of Deku and his soulmark burned. Then she was there in the crowd. He could make out her curly mass of green hair. He hoped she was _safe_. Clearly she had other plans because the next second she was throwing her backpack and running towards him and then he could _breathe_ , but now wasn't the time for that, "What the actual fuck! What the fuck do you think you're doing, Deku?! You could die, get away! I don't need you! Why would you even care-"

She was crying and that hurt. She was scared and that hurt. "You looked like you wanted help!" She cared and that probably hurt the most. A moment later All Might himself was on the scene, easily defeating the thing that attacked him, that had tried and very nearly succeeded in killing him. H was angry. He was furious. He'd been scared and weak and none of these heroes telling him how strong he was had lifted a finger to help him. They were all pathetic and so was he. The only one that tried to help was the single person who was weaker than anyone else. His heart had stopped. Deku could have died. He wouldn't have been strong enough to protect her. She could have died and it would've been his fault. Why was she such an idiot? Why did she have to care about him? Why did she care? Why did he?

She was staring at him he realized. He felt embarrassed only for a moment before seeing her tracing her wrists and realized she was muttering to herself. Fucking Deku was spaced out at him. He glared sharply at her face, daring her to really _look_ him in the eye. When finally she did, her face went red and he felt satisfied at her reaction. He watched as she got up and bowed, saying some words to the heroes that had been yelling at her. At least she'd acted. That was more than they could for themselves in his opinion. Deku quickly scurried away, no doubt on her way home.

Katsuki moved quickly to follow her, waving of the heroes that cooed over him and cursing at the more persistent ones. He wasn't interested in being a sidekick, seriously, what the fuck? Once he was clear of the bustling crime scene, he started running. He could catch up to her before she reached her street if he hurried. He had no idea why he needed to catch her but he did. He wasn't sure what he was going to say or do, but it had to be something. He had to say or do _something_. As his soulmate's back came into view he stopped, "DEKUU!" He winced at the harsh sound of his own voice. His throat hurt now that the adrenaline had ebbed away. She was looking at him now and he pointed a finger at her, mouth open to say something. "I NEVER asked for your help, and I sure as _hell_ didn't need it! Ya got that? You didn't help me by throwing yourself into that shitstorm! I was doing fine without your quirkless ass! You can't do anything at all, so don't go trying to act like tough shit! Don't think this means I owe you! Don't fucking look down on me!" He found himself agreeing with the words as they poured out. She hadn't accomplished anything for all her effort. He didn't need her playing hero and getting hurt because of him. It was her fault, not his, that she had been in danger. He didn't owe her anything, and she hadn't done him any favors. "I don't need you!" He spun on his heel, walking away from her. Strange to think that despite everything that they had just been through nothing had truly changed between them. She was still Deku. He was probably still her 'Kacchan'. His mark still burned across his skin. Some things would never change.

When Katsuki got home he trudged to the bathroom, discarding his shirt lazily and glancing in the mirror. He frowned thoughtfully at his reflection. The vines that had twisted around his entire torso since they were children were still there, thorns stabbing into his flesh as they writhed angrily. The flowers were strange though. They had never died, not completely, but they had wilted significantly. He'd grown used to the sight of rotting petals on his skin. Now they looked bright and vivid as the day he'd first seen them. Like they'd just bloomed. Had something changed? No. Nothing was different. Soulmarks were just dumb and didn't make sense. He climbed into the shower, pushing the thought from his mind. Tomorrow it would look the same as before.

* * *

Author's Notes: Sorry this took a bit longer than usual. Next update will probably be a while, too. I'm pretty sick and it's bad. Like really bad. Anyway enough whining on my part. This chapter was fun. I wound up rewriting the first part twice and I'm still not totally satisfied with it, but meh. Does this read okay? Does it make sense? I did a lot (A LOT) of thinking about Katsuki's POV before writing this. He's canonically got a superiority complex and rates Deku as the bottom of his scale of worth, hence why he's so threatened by Izuku getting stronger. So for the Soulmate AU I figured he'd start with a sense of entitlement when it came to Izuku. So then that gets completely thrown out of wack when Izuku doesn't have a mark for him. And he coped for a while because he's great and still feels like he deserves her more than whoever her actual soulmate is. (Obv not how relationships work but bare with me he's like 6 at that point) Then he comes to the conclusion that he's too good for her, and his entire self worth is riding on the concept that Deku is the one that doesn't deserve him, so her being a good or successful person is seen as her trying to be better than him. Naturally that's not okay with him, hence his open aggression and constant put-downs. Does this make sense? Are you following me or am I just rambling? Ugh. I need to sleep for 5 years. Next chapter will be entrance exam and back to Izuku's POV. We also get to meet Iida and Ochako! See you whenever that happens!

Also I'm sort of being purposefully vague about his soulmark's specifics. FYI the flower and the vines are separate plants, they're both parts of his mark, though. I'm not explaining it because Kacchan hasn't figured it out yet and the audience knows what he knows. Sorry if it's confusing.


	6. Chapter 6

Standing in the shadow of the UA testing facility Izuku felt small. She had, with some forceful persuasion on All Might's part, wound up eating the hair, but didn't feel terribly different than before. Was this going to be okay? She had no idea how to use this power or if she even could. As if her nerves weren't a wreck about taking the test in the first place she had to worry about how to handle a quirk that wasn't even hers to begin with.

"Outta my way, Deku!" She jumped at his voice. Kacchan had barely spoken a word to her since the day of the sludge incident, but after years of being bullied it was difficult not to be frightened by his sudden arrival, more so when she knew how much he disliked her trying for UA. When she looked at his face he looked tense, in desperate need of caffeine, and as was usual, angry. "Don't stand in my way. I'll kill you." He stalked past her, leaving Izuku's flailing apologies and good luck wish behind him. Giving a heavy sigh Izuku shook her head to clear away her habitual fear of her once childhood friend. She was different now from back then even without the quirk she may or may not now possess. After finding her resolve again she moved to take the first step toward her dream of becoming a hero. The only problem was the quickly approaching concrete of the walkway. Then it stopped and she stopped, frozen and weightless in midair.

Izuku let out an odd high-pitched noise, not noticing the round faced girl standing to her side, "Sorry!" The girl grabbed her body easily and moved her down from her spot in the air, putting her in a standing position on the ground before clapping her hands together. Instantly Izuku felt the weight of her body return to her, gravity anchoring her once again to the ground below. "It's my quirk! Sorry for using it without your permission, but it'd be bad luck if you fell, right?" Izuku gaped at the girl who had seemingly just come to her aid. Her first thought was that this girl was both very pretty and very nice. She had brown hair cut at an angle that kept it short in the back and long in front, wide eyes not dissimilar to Izuku's, and bright pink cheeks. "Aren't you nervous?" she continued, speaking wistfully. "Let's do our best. See ya!" She waved at her, skipping off towards the entrance before Izuku had a chance to so much as respond. She'd just talked to a girl her age, though! She felt triumphant despite not having spoken at all. Izuku hadn't had many friends since she was small and back then most of her friends had been the boys Kacchan was friends with. Maybe if they both got in she and this cheery brunette girl could be friends! All the more reason to pass this test. Izuku hurried off then to find the orientation room. She was more excited than ever about taking this test now as she realized her useless and quirkless reputation wouldn't follow her here. UA would be the start of her heroic journey, yes, but it would also be a fresh start on her school life. She could make friends here.

Somehow once in the auditorium Izuku found herself standing next to Kacchan. She was quickly distracted from her awkward neighbor when a blonde man appeared on stage and began announcing the rules of the exam. "It's the voice hero, Present Mic! Wow! I listen to him every week on the radio! This is so cool. I'm so moved. All of the UA staff are pro heroes!"

"Shut up." Izuku stopped muttering long enough to glance at Kacchan. His eyes were trained seriously on the pro hero on stage. Ah. She was being annoying. It was probably for the best that he'd told her to be quiet. After all she didn't want to miss the instructions just because of her fangirling. He explained about the mock battles and said that friends wouldn't be assigned to the same blocks. She and Kacchan both pulled out their examinee cards, "He's right. Even though our numbers are consecutive, we're in different blocks." It seemed like Kacchan relaxed a bit at the new information. He was probably worried she would drag him down if they were together. Present Mic went on to explain the faux villains and their point values.

"Excuse me, sir! May I ask a question?" Izuku's eyes scanned the crowd for the speaker only for a convenient spotlight to pinpoint him for her. He was tall with neat, dark hair, but from behind him that's about all she could tell. "On the printout there are four types of villains, not three. If this is an error on official UA documents than it is a shameful mistake. We are exemplary students that came here to become exemplary heroes." He seemed to finish. Izuku nodded her head. It was odd. It couldn't be a typo or an outdated document could it? She stared at the page as if it would suddenly correct itself. "Additionally, you! With the curly hair!" She started at the tall student's voice, realizing he was pointing at her. He looked mad, but not as mad as Kacchan was at that moment. She could feel it coming off him in waves. She was being singled out and probably embarrassing him. "You've been muttering this entire time. If you cannot bother to take this seriously then you should leave posthaste. You're distracting the rest of us." She clapped her hands over her mouth, muffling her own meek apology. The familiar sound of a room laughing at her was even louder in the auditorium. Present Mic explained the fourth villain was a behemoth that wasn't worth a single point. Like a natural disaster to be avoided. Despite her momentary embarrassment Izuku was determined to ace the test. Slowly everyone filed out to get changed and head to their assigned battle arenas. She had a fresh pair of sweats in her bag. It was lucky she'd brought them seeing as she'd left her previous pair's T-shirt somewhere at the junkyard and would be terribly embarrassed if she had to take the test in her sports bra and pants alone. She hugged the crisp, cottony-smelling clothes to her chest. Her whole future was riding on this test.

* * *

The doors to the arena were bigger than anything she had seen before. She was shaking horribly, but refused to let her nerves get the better of her. Looking around she thought it strange that none of the other contestants seemed even the slightest bit anxious. Were they that confident? Some of the other examinees even had special looking gear that was probably suited perfectly to their quirk. Her lips twitched up in a smile at the thought of 'special gear'. All she had was the sportswear and All Might ribbon that the man himself had given to her. Izuku had deemed the All Might themed ribbon as her good luck charm. It was only to be worn on special occasions when she felt like she needed his strength for her own. This was the first time she was actually wearing it, previously always too worried about getting it dirty she'd never dared wear it before, but now… now she needed it. It was just a silly strip of fabric but it made her feel like her hero was there rooting for her.

She scanned the crowd a bit more at ease, mindlessly touching her wrist until she spotted the brown haired girl from the school gate. She eagerly moved to talk to her. Izuku could say thank you and maybe they could talk about something and become friends! What did girls talk about? Izuku had always talked about heroes with Kacchan, but did other girls like heroes as much as they did? Well she was trying to get into UA, right? So she had to like heroes, right? Before making it very far a heavy hand clapped down on her shoulder, and she turned. The grip was firm, but not meant to intimidate. Not like Kacchan's. She froze, mildly panicked at the tall boy from the auditorium. What did he want? She'd stopped muttering after he'd said to, right? Was he still annoyed? He looked at the brunette Izuku had been heading for, "She looks like she's trying to focus. What about you? Were you planning on distracting her and ruining her chance to succeed?" Oh no. She hadn't thought of that.

Jumping back Izuku waved her arms in front of her, as was her custom, "No, no, no! Of course not! At least that's not what I was thinking of! It wasn't my intention to- um-" The other students leered at her from a distance. There was the distinct feeling of being counted out. Just like always. No. She couldn't afford to think like that. Present Mic's voice cut through her thoughts, announcing that there were no countdowns in real battles, run! She blanched momentarily as the crowd around her had already started taking off into the mock battle arena. "Wait!" She ran after them.

A 1 point villain burst through the wall to her right, beeping out a 'target acquired' before moving on her. Her brain knew to dodge but her feet weren't moving. Panic. She was panicking. She was going to die. Just then a laser ripped the robot apart bringing her attention to a slick looking blonde with a funny belt. "Merci, beaucoup." What? "We make a great team with you as my damsel. Though I don't expect we'll be seeing much of each other in the future." He winked and she felt slightly sick, "Adieu!" Just like that the laser boy ran off. Now what? She wasn't going to die immediately but how much time had she just wasted? She needed to get back on track.

She heard Present Mic's voice announce 6 minutes remaining. Crap. Izuku took off into the heart of the fake city, desperately searching for faux villains, but each one she came across was already defeated. She spotted the brown haired girl again, tapping robots as she ran making them float and then releasing them causing them to crash down violently. It was effective. "That should be at least 28," she said as she ran off into the chaos of the arena again. 28? Izuku didn't have _one_. How much time was left? Not enough. There couldn't possibly be enough.

The tall boy raced through the air landing a crushing kick to one villain, "that puts me at 45!" How did he get so many? She heard others announce their numbers, arguing over faux villains. She couldn't do this. It was hopeless. There was an explosion as the mountain sized, 0-point juggernaut made it's entrance into the arena. That seemed extreme. Izuku couldn't handle the fear coursing through her body. Her legs gave out from under her. She had to get away. She heard present mic announce less than two minutes left on the clock. All the training she had done, all the work and care that All Might had put in for her sake, all of it was going to be for nothing.

She scrambled, urging her legs to work, "Ouch!" That voice was the girl with the rosy cheeks. The one who had been nice to her. The girl she had wanted to talk about heroes and become friends with. She was trapped, her leg caught under rubble from the gargantuan villain's destructive wake. Said villain was still moving. It was going to crush her. Before Izuku could think she was running. God was she stupid, running at the villain that was going to get her zero points. But she had to help the girl. She wanted to know her name and ask if she could call her _chan_ and they could talk about anything they wanted. More than any of that, though. She wanted to save this girl who had been kind to her. She jumped with all her might, taking off into the sky, hurtling her small body towards the villain's head. Fist clenched, Izuku threw back her arm and thought of the brief instructions All Might had given her. Her fist made contact and the robotic villain crumpled in on itself. There was a brief moment of calm as she watched the villain fall. It ended with Present Mic's timely announcement of one minute remaining. As if her inner panic and gravity were in cahoots with one another, she seemed to start falling at the same time that she realized she had no idea how to land. Both her legs and one arm were pretty clearly broken. The pain wasn't kicking in yet and she probably had the adrenaline to thank for that, but the immediate issue was that she was way too high up and had no way of getting down safely. As if to make matters worse she still didn't have a single point. Reluctantly she realized she'd have to use a smash to soften her fall if she didn't want to die. It would almost undoubtedly break her remaining arm and she'd have no way of gaining any points but there weren't a whole lot of options at her disposal. She readied herself. The timing would have to be perfect. She might die. She was probably going to die. Here goes.

 _Smack._

The ground wasn't coming at her anymore. She was floating delicately just a foot or so above the pavement that she should've probably splattered all over. "And… release," the voice was that of the girl. Ah, she really wanted to know her name. She'd saved her. They'd saved each other, really. She clenched her fist, dragging herself forward. "I still have a chance to get at least one point!"

"And that's it! Time's up!" Izuku was starting to hate Present Mic. Or at least his time-keeping skills. There were hot tears running down her face. She screwed up. She hadn't gotten a single point. She'd let All Might down. _She'd let All Might down_. She fainted.

* * *

The dead-eyed fish stared at her, returning her dead-eyed gaze evenly. She was the same as this fish. Her mother was fretting over her from the other side of the table. "Why are you smiling at that fish? Should I be worried about you, sweetie?"

"No! Of course not. I just spaced out a little," she dug into her food. Worrying her mother wouldn't do. Even if she had managed to scrape through the written test, her mock battle score was a fat zero. To make matters worse she hadn't been able to get in touch with All Might. It had been a week since the exam, but it felt longer. She'd grown accustomed to seeing him almost every day and his sudden absence was felt deeply. He was disappointed in her. She knew it. He'd given her his great power, but she'd squandered it. She hadn't even been able to pass a simple mock battle. She hadn't been able to do anything even with all that power.

'Waiting is the worst part," her mother chimed. "Whatever happens just know that I'm proud of you. I think it's cool that you were brave enough to try out in the first place, sweetheart." Izuku hummed in response as her mom shuffled around their apartment. She reached for a weight, even if she'd flunked spectacularly it felt natural to keep up her training. She wasn't sure how, but she wasn't giving up. Not yet. Somehow All Might had seen potential in her. That had to mean something.

The door burst open abruptly, her mother scrambling in, "A letter! It came! Your test results are here! From UA!" She held out the thin envelope and Izuku gaped at it before snatching it up and rushing into her room. She could hear her mother pacing anxiously on the other side of the door.

Steeling herself for the results, Izuku ripped open the envelope, a small metal trinket landing with a clack on her desk. Before she could ponder over its nature a projection of All Might's hero form appeared, his face far too close to the camera. He explained that he had come to the city to teach at UA in addition to fighting villains. He went on to say that while she did pass the written test she received 0 combat points in the practical exam. Her heart sank. She'd failed. Worse yet was that All Might would be at UA and she wouldn't. It felt wrong to think that the two would be apart. Her hands twisted in her sweater as tears welled up in her eyes. She knew she'd failed already, but it hurt more now that it was being confirmed by the man who'd given her the tools to pass. What a disappointment she must be. "Fortunately there were other factors,but before we get to that I've got another surprise for you!" She looked up at the projection. Other factors? Surprise? What was he talking about? All Might gestured to a screen to his side as it came alive, "A clip! For your viewing pleasure!" An image of the rosy cheeked brunette from the exam appeared and Izuku perked up. She looked good. She'd been worried about the other girl since she woke up after the exam.

The girl on the screen spoke, "Excuse me." Izuku could see she was talking to Present Mic, though the pro's back was to the screen. "Do you know that girl with the really fluffy hair and the freckles? She's tiny? It's hard to describe her face…" Izuku immediately knew she was talking about her. She was a fluffy haired girl with freckles and a tiny body. There weren't an abundance of people that fit that description. "I was wondering if it'd be possible to give her some of the points I earned during the exam? She said something about wanting to get just one point, so that means she didn't have any, right? That's insane that someone who took out that big monster had zero points in the end! She would have had more points if she hadn't stopped to help me. She saved me, so I have to make it up to her! Please give her my points!" Her chest felt fluttery. The video paused as All Might spoke up again. He told her the practical exam wasn't graded only on combat points. There were rescue points awarded by a panel of judges. She'd gotten in. And the girl, Ochako Uraraka, had passed as well. They'd both made it. They'd passed. All Might got too close to the camera again, "Welcome to the hero academia, Izuku!" She cried. She didn't even try to hold it back. She'd gotten into the high school she'd always dreamed of. She could hear her mother pacing in the hall still and quickly ran out to share the news. The older woman wrapped her arms around her daughter and they both cried. After all it was her mother that told her it was best to cry when you're happy, and they were both so very happy.

* * *

Author's Notes: Wow, so this is boring, sorry. It's pretty much all canon stuff. That said the next chapter should be loads of fun, since we'll be meeting Izuku's classmates! Lots of stuff that's going to start happening. Lots of chaos going on for me right now. I'll be out of town for the latter half of June, but I plan on getting at least 2 more chapters in before I leave. Hopefully it'll be enough to tide y'all over until I get back. Thanks for reading! As usual, sorry for any typos or words I forgot to add because I was in a rush. I'll do a basic grammar check on this in a day or so to make sure it's actually readable.

Also, as an aside, if you like Xmen or Cherik go checkout my friends Spectrie. She discovered my shameful fanfiction (this) and I was able to get over my own traumatic embarassment in order to talk her into posting her fic on here, too. She works SUPER hard on her fic and spends literal hours agonizing over sentence structure. Please tell her how great she is. Also defend my weird genderbending ass, she laughed for so long.


	7. Chapter 7

It was the following night that All Might sent a message to Izuku, telling her to meet him at their beach. She wasted no time at all in throwing her hair back with a ribbon and pulling on a sweater to combat the crisp nighttime air. Running onto the beach at full speed and catching sight of him, she couldn't contain her excitement, "HI! ALL MIGHT!"

He spat out blood, "Too loud, kid!" A couple nearby started looking around for the massive hero. "Don't blow my cover! Quick! Say it was a mistake!"

"Oh? Oh! Um- I was just kidding! Nothing to see here!" Izuku tried.

"Lame." All Might rolled his eyes at the couple's quick loss of interest. He and Izuku sighed, relieved that her excitement hadn't ended in his true form's discovery.

"Congrats, little lady. You got in." He held his palm up and she happily hopped to high five him. She was so happy. All Might was congratulating her! And he was going to be her teacher! He sort of already was, but now it would be in a more official capacity. It would help to define their relationship. Where Izuku had been confused if she should call him a mentor or a friend before, now he would clearly be her teacher. It took the guess work out. She beamed at him.

"I couldn't have done it without your help!"

"Speaking of my help, I haven't told anyone at UA that I've been training you." She cocked her head in curiosity. That meant- "Really. I wasn't one of the judges and I didn't pull any strings for you. You earned this all on your own."

He grinned at her as her face lit up and she bowed deeply, "Thanks so much for telling me." She paused for a moment before excitedly saying, "Oh yeah! I was really surprised to hear that you're going to be teaching at UA this year! I was wondering what brought you here all of a sudden, after all your agency is in-"

All Might, recognizing where this was going interrupted, "I'mma stop you there before this gets creepy." She flushed, but halted her tangent of All Might facts. He turned to look at the sparkling waves of the ocean, his back to his student. Izuku couldn't help but think he still embodied everything that All Might was supposed to be in that form. She knew he was rather ashamed of it, but she found his presence just as strong like this as it was in his hero form. Looking at his back like this made her feel just as safe as she had when she'd found herself in his shadow after the sludge incident. He was strong and carried with him a sense of security that she had never felt from anyone else. "The school didn't want me telling anybody until they made an official announcement. Seemed like fortuitous timing, a good way to find someone to inherit One for All." She tensed at that. He had been planning to give it to a UA student. Someone who was already strong, already had their own quirk. Why had he thrown out that plan for her?

"Your power completely wrecked my body, and all I did was jump up and throw one punch. I can't control it. What should I do?" She felt a bit guilty. It would have probably been better with someone stronger than her. She'd have to work hard to make up for the natural disadvantage.

"You'll figure out how to manage it in time. Trying to master it right off the bat is like asking a newborn to run a marathon. You've still got to learn how to walk."

"Right!" A beat, and then, "Wait! You knew I was going to get hurt like that?!"

The guilty look on his face as he rubbed his pointy chin was confirmation enough, "Well- we were on a time crunch. And it turned out alright! Plus now you know what you're dealing with!" She eased down a bit as she listened. All Might took a deep breath before he continued, "Right now your quirk is all or nothing. Given time you'll learn to control the output and adjust exactly how much power you're using." He bent low to pick up some spray cans that had found their way back onto the beach.

"Control? That's it? That's all I need?" She felt giddy at the prospect of being able to control the power of this quirk. _Her quirk_ , she had to remind herself.

"You're overflowing with power for now, with training your body will hold it better." He crushed the cans in the palm of his hand to emphasize his point about control, shifting into his hero form, "Then it's yours to command!" She stared in awe for a moment, taking his words into consideration. She had to train more, to become stronger. Then she would gradually be able to control this power. One for All.

"Look it really is All Might!"

"No way! For real?"

"Right! Now we run!" All Might said, sweating a bit.

"Huh?" She was still in thought, but ran after his example regardless. All Might watched her carefully, deep in his own thoughts.

* * *

"Izuku, are you ready?" Her mother's voice was full of worry as she hovered over her.

"Yup."

"Are you sure? Lunch money? Notebooks? Pencils? Pad-"

" _Yes_ , mom. I've got everything. Don't worry. I gotta get going now or I'll be late on my first day!" She stood up, uniform fluttering around her. She loved the sturdy pressed material of her UA uniform. Her hair was tied up in a bow that matched her uniform tie using one of the ribbons All Might had gifted her. Izuku's favorite bulky sneakers seemed to match the reds of her tie and bow as well making her look more color coordinated than she might otherwise. She lucked out with the red tie, really.

"Izu-chan, wait!" She turned impatiently to her mother, "I'm really proud of you." Impatience melted away as she gave her mother her best smile. It was surreal to think that she was 1 in 300 of the students who tried to get in and actually made it. There were only about 36 students other than those that got in through recommendations and for each of them there were 299 other hopefuls that didn't make it. Her peers would be the best of the best and to think she was going to be counted among them. Unreal. She would be in 1-A, one of 20 students in her class all aspiring to be heroes.

Izuku was so excited she ran nearly the whole way there, only to finally stop in front of the massive door to her classroom. She suddenly felt uneasy, remembering that Kacchan and that tall boy could be waiting on the other side of the door. Maybe they were in the other class? Yeah, everybody in her class would be nice. Right? Maybe? _Please_ let them be nice. She opened the door.

"Take your feet off that desk!" Ah. The frightening tall boy from the exam.

"Haah?" And Kacchan.

"Don't you think that's disrespectful to our upperclassmen and to the school?!" They were arguing.

"Nope. What school'd you come from? They shove a stick up your ass or were you just born with it?." Kacchan, that's crude even by your standards. It was just her luck she'd be in class with both of them. And their already clashing personalities made her seriously contemplate turning right around and walking into 1-B. Maybe if she just pretended that was where she belonged no one would say anything. The tall boy seemed to pause, and though Izuku assumed it was due to being offended he quickly proved her wrong.

"Let's start over. I am Tenya Iida. I attended Somei Private Academy." He- Iida- held out his hand.

"Somei? You're a damn elite! Bet you think you're better than me; I'm gonna have fun crushing you!" Kacchan, ever the antagonist, seemed to be ignoring the peace offering.

Iida leaned back, as if Kacchan were little more than a very aggressive puppy, "You would threaten your own classmate? Are you sure you're aiming to be a hero?"

Kacchan turned away from the boy with a tsk, his movement bring her into his line of sight from her spot in the doorway. His face went from irritated to surprised? No, angry? She wasn't sure, his expression not one she was familiar with seeing on his face. That was strange in itself. She knew Kacchan and his moods and their correlating emotions better than her own. What was that light in his eyes?

"It's you!" She broke her gaze from Kacchan's face at the sound of Iida addressing her. The entire class, all of which had previously been watching the fight had turned their attention to her now. It was difficult to resist the urge to fidget and play with her soulmarks with all the eyes she could feel watching her. She gaped like a fish for a moment, opening and closing her mouth. "Good Morning!" Iida ran across the room to her side, face stern. Izuku didn't think she'd seen him look anything but since meeting him. "I am from Somei Private Academy! I-"

"I- I heard all that!" she stopped him before he could get through his entire introduction again. He seemed to deflate a bit at that, and she felt a tad bit guilty. "I'm Izuku Midoriya. It's very nice to meet you."

"Midoriya, you realized there was more to that practical exam, didn't you?"

"Huh?" She blinked at him. More to the practical exam? She hadn't realized anything at all during that exam other than how very little control she had over One for All.

"I had no idea. You must be impressively perceptive. I completely misjudged you!" He shook his head in apparent disbelief, though what at she couldn't say. "I hate to admit it, but as a student you are clearly far superior to myself." Unlikely as she hadn't realized or perceived anything. Not to mention he seemed the studious type. He was surely the better student between the two.

"Ah! Curly-Q! You did get in!" Curly? She turned, wide green eyes meeting round brown eyes. The gravity girl! She looked so cute in the uniform! Izuku felt she herself didn't quite seem to fill it out considering her small build. Add in her now muscled body made her feel even less pretty. She used to look like a child, now she looked like a buff child. Not womanly at all. Ochako, though, was a bit taller than her with a healthy, full body. She was so pretty! And if they were in the same class she really might be able to make friends with her! Ochako was punching the air enthusiastically, saying something about how cool she was in the practical, and Izuku felt herself blushing. Ochako grabbed her hands, "Ne, do you think we could be friends?"

"Yes!" Her face was beet red, but this was so great! She made her first female friend! And she was cute and nice and pretty and had a cool quirk and wanted to be a hero and wanted to be her friend! She could die happy in this moment! Ochako excitedly jumped around, spinning Izuku as she went. Iida looked perplexed but amused at the two girls. Izuku found herself feeling bashful about the whole thing. She was about to say something only for the words to catch in her throat and turn into a strange, garbled shriek as she ripped her hands away from Ochako's, gripping her wrists and wrapping her arms around her waist even as she doubled over. There was a sharp, burning pain shooting up both of her arms, so intense she nearly blacked out. After several moments the pain started ebbing away and she blearily registered Iida and Ochako's concerned voices. Iida was right in front of her, kneeling near where she had fallen to the floor, his eyes wide and brows knit. He looked serious as usual, but there was something different about his face now, a sharpness to his features. Ochako was standing behind him.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! Gosh I was so excited, I didn't think I grabbed you that hard! I'm so, so sorry!"

"No, I'm fine, really. You didn't hurt me." That was true. The pain that was still intense enough to dull her senses had nothing to do with Ochako. It was- what? She shook her head, but that hurt so she stopped. Trying to think, she replayed what happened in her head. Ochako had grabbed her hands. They's started spinning around and she'd met Iida's eyes and felt embarrassed when he looked so entertained. She'd looked away, and she'd seen someone else. Oh. _Oh_. Izuku's head snapped up, eyes scanning the classroom. Most of her peers had lost interest in her little group after she'd confirmed she was alright. Then she saw him. Oh. She felt warmth crackle up her left arm as she looked at him. He wasn't looking at her. His gaze was turned away, only the right side of his face visible from where she stood. Clearly he wasn't interested in her. Everyone had seen her enter the classroom, so he either had different requirements for activating his mark or his mark wasn't for her. She smiled sadly. _There you are. I hope we can be friends at least._ He had dual colored hair and a handsome face that made her heart do funny things. She instantly wanted to know everything about him, but now wasn't the time for that. If there ever would be a time for that. Iida and Ochako had resumed talking normally and she chose to focus her attention on them, reluctantly tearing her eyes away from her soulmate, her right arm stinging as she did so. What did her marks look like now? She folded her arms behind her back as Ochako started talking about what their first day of school might consist of- she seemed pumped for the orientation ceremony especially. Izuku couldn't wait to show someone her marks. Her mother for sure. And All Might, too. He'd probably be so happy for her. Though it did feel as if she was losing something she had shared with him. They'd both been without their soulmates, but now she'd found hers. She wondered if All Might might ever meet his soulmate?

Ochako's cheerful chatter was cut off by a deep rough sounding voice, "If you just came here to make friends go do it somewhere else." Izuku jumped, staring at the giant worm with a human face that was lurking behind the group, laying in the hallway just outside of the doorway. Ochako turned around slowly as if in a horror movie before scrambling back to stand with Izuku and a frazzled Iida. "This is the hero course," said the worm, wiggling enough for a hand to wriggle out of the worm's body with a pouch of something. It sucked on it casually quickly emptying the container. The three stood in horror. It was a monster. A weird worm monster with the face of an unkempt middle-aged man with greasy hair and a scraggly beard. Truly the stuff of nightmares.

The worm stood up and unzipped its front, apparently just a very scruffy looking homeless man. Still pretty frightening. "It took you 8 seconds to shut up. Time is limited. More rational students would appreciate that." He was accusing them of wasting time? Their teacher wasn't even here yet! Why couldn't they relax and mingle until the teacher showed up? Izuku looked at him a bit quizzically. I f he was here he couldn't be some random guy no matter how worn out he looked. He had to be some kind of pro, right? Could he be their teacher? It made sense, but she couldn't put a name to the man. That wasn't right; Izuku knew all the pros' names and faces. Who was this guy? "I'm Shouta Aizawa, your teacher." Oh, he answered her question. She briefly spared a thought to the shocked response of her classmates behind her. "Let's cut to the chase. Put these on and meet me outside." He reached into his cocoon and pulled out the UA gym uniform. Izuku had a sinking feeling that Ochako wasn't going to get to enjoy the orientation ceremony after all.

* * *

Author's Notes: Here we go! Everything is kind of gonna blow up from this point on I think. I'm definitely going to do some POV chapters, but I'm not sure when. Could be soon, could be a while. Also as a disclaimer, I love Aizawa and he is my hero. This chapter's a bit short, but I wanted to hold off on the quirk assessment because that is a whole other can of worms that I'm not in the mood to deal with just yet. Anyway, enjoy the chapter and thanks for all the positive feedback!


	8. Chapter 8

The changing room was a nightmare. A whole slew of chattering girls Izuku didn't know, some amiable, others rigid with seriousness or tension over the unknown situation awaiting them outside. Izuku was shy by nature, but was doubly embarrassed due to her toned muscles and garishly colored sports bra. She hadn't really worn normal bras in months, the sporty ones being so much more comfortable (and they were a gift from All Might). She was nervous enough, fretting over what awaited them out in the practice area and feeling decidedly not feminine enough by comparison. All of that added to her newly awakened marks meant she was awkwardly trying to change without actually undressing completely while facing a corner. She desperately did want to see her marks, but now wasn't the time. If one of the other girls saw they'd ask who her soulmate was- she didn't even know his name or the sound of his voice yet. They'd want her to talk to him or confess or _something_. Izuku wasn't about to ruin her blank slate here by being the girl who confessed before the end of first period. Or worse- the girl with an unreciprocated soulmark. There was no way to know. Not yet. She'd probably have to ask him, but then he'd probably ask why she was interested and she'd have to show him her marks anyway. She didn't even know what they were yet- they might be embarrassing. She doubted they were flowers like her mother's mark. Now that she had calmed down they didn't hurt, but she could _feel_ them on her skin. It was surreal. If she didn't know better she'd say she had her left forearm held snuggly against a heater, a pleasant warmth spread evenly across and around her entire forearm. The right was just the opposite. She felt like she stuck her right into the fridge and was holding it there. While not unpleasant exactly, she felt chilly there and rubbed the skin through her uniform jacket in an attempt to warm it up to little success. Hot and cold- but what did that mean? Did it represent their destined relationship? A constant battle between opposing elements? She sincerely hoped that wasn't the case. Maybe it had to do with his hair? That seemed silly, but he did have red hair on his left and white on the right. It could be like a trademark of his? Her marks were distracting her, so she startled a bit when Ochako placed a hand on her shoulder gently, "Hey we better hurry or we'll miss the instructions."

"R-right." Izuku turned to follow Ochako out, only just then realizing the others were all gone already. She must have waited for her. The idea of Ochako waiting for her to finish so that she didn't have to walk out by herself made her chest warm. Having a friend was going to be wonderful. She folded her arms behind her back and smiled as the temperatures evened out with her forearms pressed against each other. If they were always going to feel like this from now on she'd probably be folding her arms a lot, she realized. She bit her lip; she had to focus. Their teacher- Aizawa-sensei was standing in front of the class, looking irritated at their entrance. Perhaps he felt they were wasting precious time again? They walked up and took a place toward the front of the group next to Iida. His presence felt like a strange comfort beside her. He wasn't nearly as scary as she had first thought, just a bit serious and maybe overzealous. They certainly had the latter in common. Maybe he would be friends with her, too? He seemed to enjoy her and Ochako's company if his behavior back in the classroom was any indication. She looked at him and smiled stiffly when he caught her eye. When he smiled back she relaxed and her smile became more natural. Yeah, Iida would be a great friend to have, if he'd have her. It seemed like he would. Aizawa-sensei's voice broke her out of her thought and she and Iida both turned away to afford their teacher their full attention as he made his announcement. Izuku as well as half the class blanched. A quirk assessment test? She was so beyond screwed.

"What about orientation?" Ochako asked. She looked devastated.

"If you want to make the big leagues you can't afford to waste time on pointless ceremonies." Ochako visibly deflated at that. "Here at UA we aren't tethered to traditions. That means I get to run this class as I see fit." The crowd shifted nervously behind Izuku. She was getting a downright dreadful feeling about this whole thing. The tension was palpable. She moved thoughtlessly to trace her left soulmark only to be reminded that the lines she had taken solace in for so long were no longer there. She was met with a pulsating heat when she laid her hand around her wrist. Resolving to bite her lip, a bit agitated at the loss of one of her nervous habits, she folded her arms over her chest, rubbing the warm and cool marks together. She relaxed at the pleasant sensation as the temperatures evened out again. Her marks were still a comfort to her while she was stressed even if she no longer had the thin bracelets to trace. "You've been taking standardized tests all your life, but you've never been able to use your quirks during physical assessments before. The government is still trying to pretend like we're all created equal; it's not rational. The department of education is just procrastinating. Bakugou, how far could you throw a ball in middle school?" She turned to look at her blonde classmate.

His eyes were hard, but she didn't understand why he would look so tense. This was his time to shine and usually he loved any opportunity to show off. "Sixty-seven meters."

Kacchan easily caught the ball their teacher lazily tossed him and strode out onto the field, "Great. Now throw this. Do whatever you need to, just don't leave the circle. Give it all you got."

His eyes lit up upon the instructions as he pulled his arm back and threw with all his considerable strength, now adding an explosion to give the ball added momentum. "DIE!" Izuku resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his exclamation. It was so very like him. Instead she marvelled as the ball soared through the air, farther than it ever had before.

"It's important for us to know our limits. It's the first rational step to figuring out what sorts of heroes you'll be." He turned around the small reader in his hand to show the 705.2 meter distance that Kacchan had thrown. The class practically erupted with excitement. Izuku felt her heart sink. She wasn't prepared for this. She still had no idea how to control One for All. She'd only hurt herself if she tried to use it in these tests. "Awesome, huh? You're all aiming to become heroes after three years here and you think it'll all be fun and games?" She felt a shiver run up her spine. "Right. The one with the lowest overall score will be judged hopeless and will be expelled." She felt sick. The class was in a rage behind her. This was bad. She felt like she couldn't breathe. What to do? Her physical training with All Might would have been a huge advantage if they weren't expected to use their quirks. Depending on her classmates' applications of their quirks her physical advantage might prove useless. "Your fates are in our hands. Welcome to the hero course at U.A. High!"

Ochako's voice rang out over the chaos, "The lowest score will be expelled?! It's only the first day! And even if it weren't, that's too unfair!"

"Natural disasters, highway pileups, rampaging villains, calamity is always right around the corner. I'd say Japan is full of unfair things." he said. Heroes are the one to correct that unfairness. If you were planning on having a leisurely high school career spending your evenings hanging out then I'm sorry to tell you that for the next three years, U.A. is going to put you through the wringer. That's Plus Ultra." He smiled at them all then, as if he was challenging them. No. He _was_ challenging them. "Use your strength to overcome it all. Demonstration's over. Now it's for real."

Izuku watched nervously as some of her other classmates took to the 50 meter dash. She saw Iida had engines built into his legs, making him a natural in a speed challenge. When she thought about it it must have been terribly frustrating for him not to use his quirk when they were in middle school to take these sort of tests. She'd never felt the no quirk rule was unfair, but she hadn't had a quirk. For her they were fair because she had always been able to give her all, but for people like Iida it wasn't fair at all. What AIzawa-sensei had said was starting to make sense to her. No wonder everyone had been so excited for this test. At least before the stakes were announced. The froggy girl that raced Iida had some impressive speed, too. These were the best of the best and she had to prove that she could stay here and compete on the same level. Ochako ran against a boy with a huge tail and following the was the blonde

boy that had saved her during the quirk exam. She wasn't sure she liked him very much. He raced against a pink girl with horns. When her turn arose she tried to give her racing partner a smile only to turn to the side and be greeted with Kacchan's demeaning gaze. It was just her luck to be paired against Kacchan. "Uh-um, good luck, Kacchan." He scoffed at her before kneeling down into running position. Izuku could only sigh and follow suit. As they both started to run Kacchan pulled ahead and threw his arms back, shooting off explosions that accelerated him past the finish line. Izuku panicked briefly, thinking the explosions were going to go off in her face, but he was far enough ahead that she wasn't her score was only marginally better than in junior high, the stress of the situation and her conditioned fear of Kacchan's quirk having taken a toll on her performance. No good. She could try to use her quirk, but if she used it early she might not be able to finish the testing at all and she'd fail by default. This was insane. Everyone else would be using their quirks freely and getting great results.

Deep breaths. She tried to remember what All Might had told her about feeling it out. She only remembered immense amounts of pain and broken bones. What else had he said? Right, she had to picture it. Imagery. An egg in a microwave. She had to keep it from exploding. Easy. She felt a little like an egg in a microwave, one with the heat turned all the way up.

Grip test was next. No good. She couldn't shake the fear of winding up broken and immobile again. She was going to come in last at this rate. The next few tests didn't go any better. Maybe she wasn't focusing enough? No, that wasn't it. She was terrified of using her quirk. She choked up when it came down to the wire. If this kept up she was going to come in last and be kicked out. All the hard work she'd put in and all the faith her mom and All Might had in her was going to mean nothing if she got kicked out here and now. She couldn't let that happen. She'd use her quirk on the next test. The ball throw. It was all or nothing at this point. Ochako didn't have to worry of course thanks to her infinity score on the ball throw. Zero gravity had to be a handy quirk. Izuku would have to take notes on it later.

She walked out to the center of the field and prepared to throw. Distantly she could hear Iida and Kacchan talking about her, but she didn't bother to listen. Whatever they were talking about wasn't going to mean a thing if she got the boot. She channeled One for All into her arm and threw the ball with all her might. It landed not at all far from where she stood and an electronic voice chirped out 36 meters. She was going to break that machine. It was seriously starting to grate her nerves with its sunny sounding voice. What was going on? She knew she'd used her quirk. She had, but then why? Why didn't it work? There had been no power in her throw at all despite knowing that she had used her quirk. That and her arm was intact. No pain, no monster throw, no one spectacular score to push her stats up, no hero course at UA. She was going to get kicked out. It was over for her. What went wrong? She couldn't wrap her head around it.

"I erased your quirk." Izuku turned at the voice to see Aizawa-sensei, eyes gleaming red and his tangled bandages hovering around him like snakes. Erased her quirk? "The judges for this exam were not rational enough. Someone like you should never have been allowed to enroll at this school."

Her eyes trailed down to the yellow goggles dangling from his neck, revealed now that the bandages had decided to ignore the laws of gravity. "Wait a minute, I know you! You're EraserHead! You can nullify a person's quirk just by looking at them."

Aizawa-sensei didn't seem to care for her revelation and continued. "You're not ready. You don't have control over your quirk. Were you planning on breaking your bones again? Counting on somebody else to save you after your body's ruined?"

"N-No, I-" She was caught off when one of the bandages struck out and wrapped itself around her torso, yanking her forward so that she was uncomfortable close to the man. She had nowhere to look but his eyes as he called her out.

"Regardless of what your intentions were you would be nothing more than a liability in battle. You've got the same reckless passion as another overzealous hero I know. He saved over a thousand people by himself and became a legend, but even with that drive, you're worthless if you can only throw a single punch before falling apart. Sorry, Midoriya, but with your power there's no way you can become a hero." Izuku felt something hot welling up in her stomach and realized as it bubbled up into her chest exactly what it was: pure, unadulterated rage. It was a hot righteous sort of fury that was clawing it's way up through her and she didn't want to stop it from coming out. The bandages unraveled from around he and returned to Aizawa's shoulders where they settled limply back into the laws of gravity. No. He was wrong. It wasn't that his argument didn't make sense, it did. But he was still wrong. She could and would be a hero. She'd prove it. She'd show Aizawa-sensei and All Might and Kacchan and everyone in the whole world that she had what it takes to be a hero. "I've returned your impractical quirk. Take your final throw." He walked away leaving her standing where he'd dragged her, literally and metaphorically. She huffed and turned on her heel to walk back to the mount. She's show him. She could do this. She wasn't some damsel in distress that needed to be saved. She was a hero. Or at least she was going to be a hero. She squared her shoulders and focused all her strength into her finger. The pain was bad. But not as bad as when it had been her whole arm. The ball shot forward and a little score of 705.3 appeared on the reader. That was further than Kacchan! Pride swelled up in her chest.

"Aizawa-sensei! " She called, balling her shattered finger into a fist. She forced a smile despite the pain, "I can still move!"

"This kid," he gave her a manic smile. She bit her lip in an effort to keep the pained tears at bay. She'd done it.

"Nice job, Curly!" Ochako threw her arms up in celebration of the score.

"Although her finger looks broken now just like in the exam. What an odd quirk." Iida observed.

"It wasn't a very pretty throw." Fuck you, too, creepy french dude.

"Deku, you bitch! Tell me what you did or you're dead!" Kacchan was running straight at her and he looked angrier than she'd ever seen him before. _I'm going to die_. Kacchan was going to literally kill her. After everything, this was how she died. She shrieked and backed away, tripping over her own feet and falling on her ass. She closed her eyes and waited for an impact that never came. "What the fuck?! Why're your scarves so strong?!" She opened her eyes to see Kacchan frozen in place, Aizawa-sensei's bandages wrapped around him, holding the boy in place. He'd saved her.

"Because it's a capture weapon made out of carbon fiber and a special metal alloy. Now stand down!" Izuku flinched back at the hardness in his tone. He must be really mad. "It's unwise to make me use my quirk so much. It gives me dry-eye!" That's so lame! And what a shame with such an impressive quirk. "You're wasting time now. Whoever's next can step up." He pulled the scarves back to him and walked away, leaving Kacchan a few feet in front of Izuku. He glared at her, but didn't move. She scrambled quickly to her feet and ran straight back to Iida and Ochako, positioning herself safely between them.

"Is your finger okay?" Ochako asked, tenderly taking Izuku's hand in hers. "It looks painful- ah," her eyes widened.

"Oh it's not so bad," Izuku flushed. "Ochako-chan?" she questioned after a moment.

"Your mark's so pretty is all." Izuku froze. Her what? Oh no. "I don't really know many people our age that have active marks, but most of the ones I've seen aren't anywhere near this pretty." Ochako pushed her right sleeve up to get a better look and Izuku, for the first time since they'd activated, saw one of her marks. Ochako was right; it was beautiful. From her wrist and up into the sleeve of her uniform there were what looked like glaciers, glittering in the sunlight that they seemed to catch. Ice. Her right arm was covered in sparkling ice. That explained the cold at least. She lifted her left hand and tentatively placed it against her right arm. Her skin still felt soft and warm to the touch despite the cool sensation and the shifting blue and white that seemed to dance across her skin. It was so surreal. She'd almost forgotten that they'd activated. If the blue line had turned to ice, then what did the orange line look like now?

Suddenly she remembered Ochako holding her arm, admiring the picture on her skin as she was. She pulled it away and blushed brightly, "It's not so special." She pulled the sleeve back down over it and looked around to see if anyone else had been looking. No. They were all watching the rest of the ball tosses. Thank goodness, even Iida it seemed had not been paying attention to them. Good. She didn't want everybody finding out about her marks. "Ochako-chan, could you maybe keep this a secret? Just between us?"

Ochako tilted her head, brows knitting together, but seemed to shrug off whatever questions she had in favor of smiling and nodding her head, "Sure thing! Just between us two, right?"

"Yeah." Thank goodness.

"Promise you'll tell me who it's for later, okay?" Oh.

"Uh-m, yeah. O-ok. Sure thing." Izuku was nervous. She didn't even know his name. Ochako was beaming at her, and didn't that feel wonderful. She'd probably want Izuku to tell him, but that would be too embarrassing. She couldn't do it. Not anytime soon at least. She still had to get through the rest of these tests without being kicked out of school. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about her soulmate or her soulmarks or anything so frivolous. She turned her attention back to the ball toss and felt her body go rigid. The student that had just finished was walking back to the group, a deep red scar that covered half her soulmate's face now clearly visible. His face had been turned away from her back in the classroom, but now she saw it clear as day. She wanted to know how he got it. Wouldn't be swell? Waltz on up to him and say, 'Hey how'd you get that big ol' scar? By the way, I'm your soulmate.'

Iida must have caught her staring because he touched her shoulder and said, "That's Shouto Todoroki. He's one of Endeavor's children."

"Endeavor!? The number two hero!?" Izuku might have said that more loudly than intended because now half the class was peering at her curiously. Her face went beet red and she felt like she could die. She really didn't need to stand out anymore than she already had. That's when she caught his eyes. Beautiful mismatched eyes. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart skipped a beat. She looked down at her feet immediately. There was far too much going on around her and in her head, so she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to tune out the world. Iida's grip on her shoulder brought her back to reality. Soft and reassuring, she let him drag her back to the present, and she opened her eyes. The group was dispersing quickly and moving onto the next test. No one but Iida was paying her any attention now. What a relief that was.

"We best get moving or we'll be left behind," he told her, nudging her forward. She smiled up at him. Iida was nice. He'd waited for her just like Ochako had in the locker room. She nodded and the two set off after the rest of the class.

"Iida-kun, can we be friends?"

He stopped behind her and she spun around to face him. Oh no. What if he had just been being polite before? Maybe he didn't like her at all. Maybe- "Aren't we already friends?"

"Huh? Oh, um yeah! I was just making sure!" Two friends in one day, what luck! She scurried after the rest of the class with Iida jogging just behind her. She had to fight through the pain during each of the following tests, but she managed to not drop out, though she didn't dare to use her quirk again. By the end she ached everywhere and the throbbing pain in her finger had dulled but was still everpresent. The whole class gathered loosely in front of their teacher, awaiting the dreaded results of the quirk assessment.

"I've ranked you all from best to worst; you should have a pretty clear idea of your standing already." Aizawa-sensei looked bored despite the impending doom of one of his students. "I'm just going to pull up the whole list. It'd be a waste of time to go over individual scores." This was it. The moment of truth. If she placed last she'd be sent home. She wouldn't be able to stay in this place with Iida and Ochako and Kacchan. She wouldn't be able to stay in the same place as All Might, under his wing. She bit her lip and folded her arms across her chest, effectively hugging herself. The list appeared in bright blue and her eyes trailed from the top down. Todoroki- her soulmate- had scored second, even higher than Kacchan. Iida ranked fourth, just under Kacchan. Lower on the list at tenth place was Ochako, and toward the bottom, amazingly, there was her name. She wasn't last. Her shoulders drooped and she felt light-headed. She didn't have to hold it together anymore. She'd passed. She let herself stumble backward, slouching against Iida's front. He quirked a brow at her but didn't object to the intrusion of his personal space. Ochako jumped up and down excitedly next to them. "Also, I was lying. Nobody's going home." The class was silent. "That was just a rational deception to make sure you gave your all on these tests."

"WWHHHHHHHHAAAATT!?" The whole class seemed to cry out in unison. Izuku felt deeply betrayed. All that stress, all that panic and fear he'd put her through. Rational, her ass!

"I'm surprised the rest of you didn't figure that out. Guess I should have said something." A tall girl with a black, spiked ponytail said. She was the one who ranked first, wasn't she? Tall, beautiful, smart, and clearly powerful. Izuku was jealous immediately. She wished she'd seen through it! Than she could've stayed calm and maybe done better on her tests! She shook her head, hindsight was always 20/20. She let out a heavy sigh. Ultimately it was a relief, though.

"Midoriya," Aizawa-sensei handed her a slip of paper, "Take this to the nurse and have the old lady fix you up." She nodded dumbly at him as he walked away. "Things are only going to get harder from here once your actual training begins. Be prepared." Izuku did as he told her to, going down to the nurse and having Recovery Girl patch up her finger. After that she hurriedly changed back into her school uniform and went to head home. She needed a hot bath and a big dinner and she needed to write down all the mental notes she'd made about her classmates' quirks and uses before she forgot and she had to show her mother her marks, too! So much to do and she was already so beat. A hand came down on her shoulder and she somewhat instinctively startled. Turning around to see it was just Iida was a huge relief.

"Iida-kun! Hey!" She tried to give him her best smile despite the combination a high strung nerves and total physical exhaustion.

"Hey. How's the broken finger doing?"

"It's doing just dandy thanks to Recovery Girl." She held up the finger in question to show him. Iida put his hand under his chin and squinted, carefully inspecting the injured digit. Once he seemed to deem that yes, it was in fact fine, the two started walking toward the school gate together.

"To tell the truth I was a bit concerned about Aizawa-sensei's approach, but I trust the school's judgement. UA is the top hero program," he shook his head. "Even so, lying is downright immoral." She quirked an honest smile at him. Iida wasn't scary at all once you got to know him. He was just very serious.

"Heeeyyyyy!" The two turned simultaneously to be greeted with the sight of Ochako running towards them at full speed, "Wait for meeeeee!" She more or less crashed into Izuku and they both would've fallen if not for Iida's sturdy frame being in the way. "You're Tenya Iida, right?" She suddenly realized that while she and Iida had introduced themselves to each other formally, she had never actually told Ochako her name. When Iida nodded she turned her attention to Izuku, "And You're Deku, right, Curly?"

"Huh?"

"That's what that Bakugou guy called you, right? During the fitness test?" Oh. He had.

"W-well. My name's actually Izuku, Kacchan just calls me 'Deku' to make fun of me."

"That's unsportsmanlike." Iida was clearly missing the intent.

"Oh, really? I didn't realize that, I'm sorry!" Ochako apologized. Her smile returned quickly, though. "I actually really like 'Deku', though! It sounds cute! And it kind of sounds like the Japanese word for 'you can do it'!"

"Deku it is!" she chirped, cheeks a rosy color. Ochako was her first friend that would be a girl. This was huge. Anything she wanted to call her was fine!

Iida tried to argue, "I thought it was an insult! Aren't you going along with this too easily?" She shook her head animatedly and he seemed to relent. This was what it felt like to have friends, this light and easy fluttering feeling in her chest and this simple and fun interaction that she didn't have to overanalyze. She could get used to this. She'd love to get used to this. The three all walked to the station together from there, chatting nonchalantly as they went. High school was going to be hard, but at least this time she'd have friends by her side.

* * *

Author's Notes: I'm back from the dead! Sorry for the unusually long absence, I momentarily lost inspiration for this story, hence why I didn't post before my end of June trip. That said all of your lovely encouragement in the comments really helped, so thanks a whole bunch to absolutely everyone who commented. I would like to answer one question a guest left about if soulmarks were physical manifestations or just flat images. The answer is that they generally look like tattoos. They feel real to the person whose skin they are on, but aren't actually there. So Kacchan can feel flowers on his skin, but they're just images, and to the touch his skin would feel normal. I didn't mean for that to be confusing, but I guess maybe it was? Anywho, Izuku knows her soulmate's name! And she's officially made TWO WHOLE FRIENDS. Lucky duck! Sorry for any glaring errors, I'm super not editing this tonight, but I've kept y'all waiting long enough. I should be back on a more regular update schedule now and thankfully I do have the next several chapters planned out.

Thanks a bunch for reading and if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for this or other story ideas let me know!


	9. Chapter 9

By the time Izuku got home she had far too much to think about, but was immediately swallowed up in one of her mother's hugs. "How was it? Did you make any friends? It's okay if you didn't, but you really should try! How was orientation? What about your teachers? Are they nice? And the kids! Oh, did you make any friends? Is Katsuki in your class? I hope not, but I suppose there's not* much to do if he is- don't let him push you around, sweetheart! Make some friends and I bet-"

" _Mom_. Calm down. Yes, I made friends. We didn't get to go to orientation. My teacher is Eraserhead! He's kind of scary, but I think he's a nice person probably. Everyone seems nice, but we didn't really do much today other than test our quirks." Izuku explained, pulling her mother's arms off of her. Best not to tell her about Kacchan's outburst.

"You made a friend? Oh! Is he nice? He must be, right?"

"Iida-kun is very nice. I also made a girl friend! Her name's Ochako-chan!" Izuku excitedly told her. She'd never had female friends before so it was understable for her mother to assume her friend was a boy. She'd never been very good at talking to other girls and was more often than not bullied by them in junior high. Though she'd never particularly understood why? Being quirkless was one thing, but if she kept her head down, the boys didn't go out of their way to bother her. The girls were another story entirely.

"A girl!? And a boy!? Oh, Izuku! I'm so happy for you! Iida-kun and Ochako-chan, is it? Oh, you'll have to invite them both over sometime. Come here and tell me all about it!" Her mother pulled her into their small kitchen and took Izuku's hands in her own, clasping them tightly, "Tell me everything. Don't leave a thing out!"

Izuku smiled even as she gently pulled her hands from her mother's, "Sorry, but I've got to write down all the notes from today before I forget!" She sprinted into her room and shut the door. "I'll tell you all about it later!" she called. It hadn't been a lie by any means, but she needed to see for herself first. If her right forearm was decorated in ice and felt cold than the heat on her left meant- fire. She gazed, mesmerized, at the flames dancing up her arm from her wrist to her elbow as she yanked the sleeve out of the way. She hadn't properly _looked_ yet. She hurriedly stripped off her top layers and held out both her arms in front of her. They were beautiful. Fire and Ice. He had an ice type quirk, or at least she was pretty sure he did. She'd seen him use ice during the assessment. But what about the fire then? Endeavor's quirk was Hell Flame and if her soulmate was his son? Whatever. She'd figure it out later. Maybe. She'd talk to him tomorrow. Maybe. This was all too much. Her soulmate was Endeavor's son? And he was a student in the hero course at UA? And he ranked even higher than Kacchan in the quirk assessment? He was too amazing. She was nothing by comparison. What did she have to offer him? Nothing. She quickly shook those thoughts from her head. She had to write down all of the notes she'd picked up today, that hadn't been a lie. Pulling out her notebook and taking a seat at her desk she diligently set about writing down everything she'd noticed throughout the day. By the time she finished it was already getting late so Izuku shuffled out into the kitchen only to be greeted by the sight of her mother asleep, face resting on the kitchen table. She smiled and grabbed a blanket to drape over her shoulders before setting about reheating some leftovers. Tomorrow classes would officially start. She ought to learn the names of her other classmates. It was all such a big change compared to her junior high career. She already had friends to look forward to seeing. Not to mention she got to be taught by All Might. All Might! She had to show him her marks! They were so pretty, and he probably knew Endeavor personally, too. Maybe he knew Todoroki-kun a bit? It was worth asking, right? She looked at the clock. Too late to call him now. She's tell him tomorrow. Izuku cleaned up after herself before heading to bed. She couldn't wait for school tomorrow.

When Izuku woke up she felt fuzzy, like she'd been dreaming deeply. She tried to remember briefly, but couldn't quite recall what she had been dreaming about. Something about a little girl with lopsided pigtails and overalls falling off her shoulder and a boy with a big smile he saved just for her. There was a playground with a slide and then she remembered where it was. The playground she used to play on when she was little. She recalled stopping Kacchan from bullying another boy and how he'd ganged up on her with their- his friends. Bad memories weren't how she wanted to start the shook the tiredness off and went to wash her face. Today was the day. She pulled on her uniform and hurried out of the house. Her morning classes were the regular high school curriculum, but that was no reason for her not to pay attention. Lunch was heavenly because she got to eat it with her friends for the first time. What a different experience! Ochako and Iida were wonderful and she was enthused to see that several of their other classmates also chose to sit with them. No sign of her soulmate, though. No Kacchan either.

"Is it true that they're soulmates, though?" That caught her attention. She quickly pulled at the edge of her sleeves. It was already becoming instinctual to check if her marks were fully covered. She wasn't sure what that said about her.

"What?"

"Sero and Shouji!" Ashido shared. She was practically vibrating out of her seat with excitement. "They're pretty cute together, too!"

Izuku nodded, trying to put faces to names. Sero was the boy with the tape quirk and Shouji was? She had to rack her brain a bit. "Oh!" She put her fist in her palm as she remembered the day before, "I saw them talking during our quirk assessment! During the grip test." Some of the others around her nodded eagerly.

"Pretty sure Jirou's got an active mark, too. I saw it in the changing room" Asui said. Wow.

"There must be a lot of couples in our class then, huh?"Ochako wondered aloud. Izuku tensed. The girl wouldn't accidentally out her secret here, would she?

"We don't know that Jirou's soulmate is in our class."

"But it would make the most sense. And Uraraka's right. Even if they aren't in our class, I've got my mark now, too." Asui was collected even as she said it. Izuku felt oddly jealous of how easy she made it look to share something like that with a group.

" _WHAT_!?" Ashido shrieked, standing abruptly from her seat and nearly knocking over Iida's juice in the process. " _Who_?"

"Secret." Asui stuck out her long tongue at the pink girl as she sunk back into her seat.

"Lame." Ochako just giggled at Ashido's rejection.

"Honestly isn't this all just hearsay? You'll only end up starting rumors if you all gossip like this without evidence. What will happen if something gets twisted up along the grapevine? You could tarnish UA's reputation!" Izuku couldn't help but to laugh a bit with the other girls at Iida concern.

"Oh, _puh-lease_. It's not like we're saying anything mean about anybody." Ashido rolled her eyes and waved her hands as if she was physically brushing off his worries. Iida spluttered a bit, but didn't retort. "What about you guys? Any active marks other than Asui here?"

Izuku froze solid. She didn't want to lie, not to her friends. And they were her friends. But she couldn't tell the truth. She was afraid. "I don't have one." Izuku's head shot up as she stared wide-eyed at Ochako. The other were doing much the same.

"You mean-"

"I'm Markless." Ochako smiled kindly then, but there was a sadness, too. The topic of soulmarks was dropped then and there. No one wanted to pursue the subject after Ochako's revelation. Markless. Izuku felt sadness well up in her chest. It was exceptionally rare. To be born without another half, without a mark to prove you had someone, somewhere. Regardless of if your marks matched or not, most people at least had something. To be born without, did Ochako ever feel lonely? Izuku couldn't imagine her life without her marks. They'd been a source of comfort for her whenever she felt sad or alone. She almost felt guilty. Ochako had shared her own secret in favor of giving up Izuku's. Iida was the one to nudge her out of her thoughts again.

"Finish eating. We have basic hero training in the afternoon." She nodded and obeyed. Awkwardness aside, lunch was fun. Having friends was fun.

The excitement in the air was palpable. All Might was their teacher today, and for most all her classmates this would be their first time meeting him. Izuku was excited, too. Regardless of her close personal relationship with the man, she was just as excited as everyone else to have him as her teacher.

"I AM," She recognized that booming voice and looked to the door to see him grab either side of the frame, "Coming in like a regular person!" He really wasn't, but that did nothing to diminish the enthusiastic murmuring of her classmates.

"It's All Might!"

"So cool!"

"He really is a teacher!"

"It's really him!"

"That suit's from the Silver Age, right?"

"He's a giant!"

Izuku smiled widely at his entrance. It was so very like him. Some part of her felt proud as she heard the awed whispers of her knew him. He was- well she didn't know what he was, but he was something to her, and she was something to him. Even though he was this otherworldly, amazing person. She knew he liked chocolate ice cream and fruity teas and he'd bought her ribbons to wear in her hair. She touched the orange tie in her curls and smiled even more brightly. Would he notice that she was wearing one of them? It felt giddy and surreal, having this big important thing with All Might that was all their own.

He briefly explained the class as everyone eagerly listened, "Let's get right into it! This is what we'll do today," He spun around showing a pass that read BATTLE in bold red letters, "Combat practice!" Her heart dropped into her stomach. Kacchan was excitedly repeating the words in front of her. Combat practice. Alarms were going off in her head, blaring like sirens in warning. This was bad. _Dammit All MIght_! He knew she couldn't control her powers! Although he was a teacher to the whole class, so it wouldn't be fair to everyone else to cater solely to her needs. Still, she was decidedly miffed. He could've at least warned her. Not that she would have been able to do anything about it. This train of thought was taking her in circles. "And to go with that are these!" He gestured wildly around as cases slid out of the wall to his side, "Costumes based on your quirk registrations and the specifics you sent in earlier" The class burst into excited exclamations. Even Izuku was a bit excited. Her mother had made her a costume once she'd been enrolled. It wasn't anything fancy, but she was excited. She hadn't actually seen it yet. Her mother had said something about it being a surprise. She'd had one of those looks, like something was hilarious and only she knew what. Izuku was a bit worried, but her mom made it for her, so she was going to wear it with pride. It might be a bit embarrassing but it couldn't be that bad. Her mom probably just wanted her to be more feminine or something so it'd be a putrid shade of pink or maybe have a bunch of bows or something equally silly looking. She'd suffer for now and hope it wouldn't be too traumatising. "After you change, meet in Ground Beta!"

"Aye, sir!" the class responded.

* * *

Author's Note: NOT DEAD! Sorry for the long absence, blame my roommate (at least partially). Okay, so here we go, Chapter 9. It took way too long, I know. I'm really sorry. I feel pretty bad, but just know that I am not abandoning this, I'm just a train wreck of a human being.

To Jaravic- thanks SO much for all your comments! I thought their tracksuits were long sleeved, but you're right they are not. So either just pretend they're long sleeved in this or, more hilariously, that Izuku wore her uniform's button-up under the jacket. There s going to be more Dad Might soon and there are going to be like 3 different character POVs coming up. So you'll probably enjoy that.

To Firelily05m- thank you for the emojis. I loved them.

To Akuhime No Hana- For starters your username is wicked cool. Also just a general shout out for your absolutely lovely compliments. There's definitely going to be a lot of jealousy bouncing around all over the place.

And to address a couple different people's comments, just because Todoroki is her soulmate does not mean you should discount Kacchan as a love interest. I thought it would be boring if Kacchan was her soulmate and they've already got such a rich history and really strong framework to their relationship (regardless of how you interpret it) so making him her soulmate would have been boring and additionally make it difficult for any other interests to be taken seriously. End pairings for this fic are undecided but as I'm multishipping trash you should get at least a few good chapters regardless of which pairing you prefer. Hopefully you'll enjoy the ride. Next chapter should be out in about a week (Wednesday or Thursday I think).


	10. Chapter 10

The sun cast bright rays from where it hung in the sky bathing the playground in a pleasant warmth. Cicadas and birds alike were chirping loudly. The beautiful day did nothing to change the scene going on at the edge of said playground where a little girl stood with tears in her eyes, hands balled into angry fists even as she trembled with fear and struggled to keep her voice even. She had to sound brave if she would ever be a hero. "That's mean, Kacchan! You made him cry!" A round boy was cowering behind her as she faced his attackers on his behalf. Kacchan was small, they were all only children after all. He stared blankly at her heroics, clearly unimpressed. "I-If you keep hurting him, I-I'll st-stop you myself!" _Pathetic_. His lips quirked into a wicked smirk.

"You want to play at being a hero?" He knew the boys behind him were activating their quirks, proud of their individualities and eager to show them off, not that he was terribly different in that regard. His quirk was the strongest and the most impressive. That made him the best. He slammed his fist against his palm, activating a threatening blast of fire in the process. "You think you stand a chance without a quirk, _Deku_?" The question was rhetorical. They all knew she didn't. That didn't mean any of them would go easy on her. People were not created equal. Laying on the ground, beaten and bruised, it was a lesson Izuku learned well, but all the same refused to accept.

* * *

Katsuki hadn't spoken to Deku since the sludge incident. In fact he'd been avoiding her altogether since then. He was generally trying to not think about his soulmate at all and, with every passing day, was proving less and less successful. The scourge of his existence herself was making it increasingly difficult to ignore her. It was the little things. Suddenly she was sitting up straighter, wearing her hair up in a myriad of colorful ties, working out discreetly during class, and scribbling away furiously in her notebooks. He knew they weren't class notes. They were always in that dumb, charred Hero Notebook of hers. The sight of crisp edges made him feel sick. Everything about her made him feel sick. Worst of all was the glimmer in her eyes that hadn't been there since they were children, dreaming of being hero partners. Together against the world. Why hadn't she given up after what happened? How was it that she seemed more determined than ever to be a hero? He couldn't wrap his head around it. The ordeal had made him feel powerless. It had made him realize he wasn't even strong enough to defend himself, let alone Deku. The whole thing had proven how little either of them could do in the face of even one real villain. So why and how did shitty, useless Deku seem to think that as powerless as she was, she could still be a hero? He couldn't fathom it. She was going to wind up hurt and broken, and it was infuriating that the thought of her like that bothered him as much as it did. Regardless he refused to be shown up by her. If she wasn't giving up, he sure as hell wasn't either. If she was training all day, he'd train even harder.

As if to make matters worse his soulmark was still in full bloom. The vines that had brought constant pain for years, had receded. They weren't gone, but they were smaller than ever before and additionally hidden under the multicolored foliage of Deku's flowers. What had changed? Why, all of a sudden, was his soulmark different when nothing between him and Deku had happened? The only difference was that he wasn't bullying her anymore, and thus their classmates largely seemed to stop as well, but the flowers had come back before then, the day of the sludge incident. Like a switch had been flipped. Logically he knew that whatever it was that his mark actually represented was what had changed, but he'd never known what they meant in the first place. He hadn't cared to know. He didn't _want_ to know. So, much as he was trying and failing to ignore his soulmate herself, he tried, and largely failed, not to think about his mark.

* * *

He'd been training like a man possessed. It was the only thing that could keep thoughts of her out of his head for more than a few minutes. Besides that, it was something productive to put his energy into. He was brimming with confidence. Today was the day. The day of the UA Entrance Exam. He was going to prove how much stronger he was now. He'd never be useless like he'd been back then ever again. He'd never let himself feel helpless ever again. Today was the day he started on his journey to being a hero. People were going to look back and say that he stood out from the start, from this day onward. He was so fucking ready. Nothing could dampen his mood.

Nothing but seeing obnoxiously familiar green curls in front of the testing facility. She'd fucking done it. Deku had actually signed up for and was taking the entrance exam. Did she have any clue how dangerous this thing was supposed to be? So much for being calm and cool, now he was just plain infuriated. If there was one word to describe how he thought of her, that would probably be it. Infuriating. "Outta my way, Deku!" She jumped, reflexively moving out of his way as he stormed past her. "Don't stand in my way. I'll kill you." He could see her arms flailing out of the corner of his eye and heard her stammering out some sort of apology and wishing him luck. Dumbass. This was a competition. What kind of idiot wishes their competitors luck? Of course he knew Deku was that kind of idiot; he'd expect nothing less from her, really. There were murmurs and whispers on either side of him, too. Extras gossiping about if he was really the kid from the sludge incident, how amazing he'd been. Katsuki wished everyone would stop being so impressed by that. He'd been a hostage, nothing more. Just another victim. He hadn't done anything to warrant praise or respect. Yet. _Wait and see_. He was going to blow them all away from here on out.

He wasn't really sure how, but he'd managed to wind up next to Deku once he got into the auditorium. He was still racking his brain over how exactly this fucking happened when some blond guy showed up on stage and started talking. Deku was mumbling about Present Mic and the radio, "Shut up." Her voice was grating and he really didn't need to hear it on top of Present Mic. Present Mic was supposed to be a pretty good Pro, but Katsuki wasn't terribly impressed by his work. He was no All Might. Present Mic went about explaining the practical exam, "-you'll head to the assigned battle areas." Katsuki suddenly felt a lump in his throat. He looked down at his registration card before glancing to his side at Deku as she looked at her own.

"He's right. Even though our numbers are consecutive, we're in different blocks." He suddenly felt his shoulders relax despite not having noticed he'd tensed up in the first place. He'd never even considered that they might have to face each other in the entrance exam. Suddenly realizing they didn't have to after all was oddly relieving as much as it was somewhat disappointing. The prospect of not having to directly compete with her wasn't something he knew if he liked or disliked, but the thought of her in a battle, even a mock battle, was unnerving. She'd be a distraction if she were anywhere near him. Deku would only be a hindrance to his shining success. Yes, that was it. He was glad they weren't in the same block because she would get in his way. The only downside was that he wouldn't be able to watch her fail. Even with that thought, though, his gut twisted. He wouldn't be there when she was in danger. The thought didn't sit well with him, but he brushed it aside. It didn't matter what happened to his soulmate. He didn't need her to be a hero.

"Excuse me, sir! May I ask a question?" Katsuki's eyes darted over to where a spotlight appeared over some tall, blocky looking kid as he spoke. "On the printout there are four types of villains, not three. If this is an error on official UA documents than it is a shameful mistake." What a prick. The blocky kid kept rambling for a bit before turning around suddenly and pointing right at him. "-You! With the curly hair!" Oh. He was pointing at Deku. She jumped slightly beside him, looking anxious and confused. Somehow Katsuki was mad. No, he was furious. The fuck did this square think he was? Picking on Deku like that- he was the only one allowed to do that! No, wait that wasn't right either. Whatever. He was pissed, but Rectangles didn't seem to notice the daggers being glared into him as he continued, "You've been muttering this entire time. If you cannot bother to take this seriously then you should leave posthaste. You're distracting the rest of us." He saw Deku clap her hands over her mouth, cheeks turning pink as the auditorium broke out in laughter. Something ugly twisted in his gut as he realized this was exactly like what had happened the day of the sludge incident during class. Izuku had been called out, by him, for wanting to be a hero. He'd accused her of not taking it seriously, and everyone had laughed. This revelation only served to make him angrier. A bitter reminder of what he'd done to her. Deku was still pathetic and useless, but he doubted anybody else in this room had thrown themselves at some hentai monster for someone who only ever treated them like shit. This wasn't a joke to her. He ground his teeth as he turned away. Being near Deku only ever served to get him riled up. He didn't need to be wasting energy on getting mad for her, especially not when she wasn't even willing to stand up for herself anyway. He had to ace this test. He was aiming for first place, and he was determined to get it. He turned and left the auditorium along with the rest of the shuffling crowd, leaving Deku behind somewhere in the masses of other UA hopefuls. That's all she was. A hopeful who wouldn't get in. He had to leave her behind.

* * *

Katsuki was wrong. Again. He was going to kill her for proving him wrong. _Again_. Deku had gotten accepted into UA. He hadn't a fucking clue _how_ , but she'd done it. Part of him, some very small part of him that he would continue to willfully ignore, was impressed beyond belief that quirkless Deku had managed to compete on the same level of hundreds of other kids with powerful quirks and beat them back to stand at the top among the best of the best. She really was competing on the same level as him. Since he was ignoring how impressed he was by this though, Katsuki chose to be pissed about it instead. Pissed and confused. Yes, that was better than being impressed. After all he was used to being angry and perplexed by the curly-haired menace. Being impressed by her was new, like the flowers stretching further across his skin than they had even when they were children. He didn't like new. He'd take the familiar hatred and annoyance. So he told himself.

His parents had insisted on celebrating his acceptance ever since he got the news, but he had no interest in some dumbass party his parents put together to get drunk with their friends and brag about their precious son. He'd rather gag on a spoon. Although he needed a distraction rather desperately. Something- anything at this point- to keep his mind off Deku. He hated that he couldn't get her out of his head lately. WIth any luck she wouldn't be in his class at least. Instead of subjecting himself to his parents' celebratory bullshit, Katsuki decided to take a walk. Try to clear his head. The walk turned into a jog not long after he left the house. Just as well, he had to keep up his training. Getting accepted was just the first step, and he was going to have to keep getting stronger from here on out. Someday he was going to be even better than All Might, and that wasn't about to happen without some hard work on his part. Katsuki knew he was a prodigy, he wasn't dumb enough to think that natural talent alone would keep him ahead of his peers. At least not anymore. That damned sludge bastard had cleared up any misconceptions about that. Katsuki glanced around to see where his run had brought him and let out a sigh at the sight. It was the boardwalk. The beach, that had for as long as he could remember, been covered in literal mountains of junk, was clear. The waves rolling up on the beach accompanied by the soft pastels that streaked across the sky in the late hours of the day made a picturesque image. He heard some seagulls squawk as they circled around and took a deep breath, tasting the salt in the air. Whoever'd cleaned up the shitshow of a beach had done a great job. It was beautiful and serene. Maybe he'd come out here more often in the future. He could probably adjust the route he took for his morning run to take him past this spot. He might be able to catch the sunrise if he did that. It could be nice. Katsuki closed his eyes and muttered a quick thank you to whoever cleaned up the beach before spinning on his heel and starting the run back toward his house. His mom was probably already a few glasses deep which meant he wouldn't have to deal with her cooing and pinching his cheeks in front of her friends as she had a habit of doing. She really was so annoying sometimes.

* * *

Fuck.

By the time the first day of school rolled around Katsuki was itching to start. He felt a bit like his first day of school when he'd been little, eager to meet people and compare quirks. Naturally he knew his would be the best as it always was, but still, maybe at UA his peers wouldn't be quite as pathetic as before. He woke up early, scrubbed his teeth clean, and pulled on the UA uniform. The gray blazer and pants were lame, but he looked fine anyway. There was a tie that he didn't even bother with and then he yanked his shoes on and headed out the door as his mother came bustling out to try and kiss him and say something stupid. She misses out on the kiss but still managed to shout after him, "Don't fuck up! These kids don't know what an asshat you are so try to put in an effort towards making some friends for once!" Katsuki rolled his eyes, who cared if he made friends or not? They were all going to be his rivals, and he was wholeheartedly ready to grind each and every one of them to dust under his heel.

By the time he reached UA he was still a tad on the earlier side, but whatever. He could scope out the competition. He leisurely made his way to the gigantic entrance to class 1-A while observing the huddles of students moving around him and through the halls. A few noticed him and murmured about him being the kid from the sludge incident to their friends. After the third time that happened he was too pissed off to pay attention to anyone else so just stormed the rest of the way to his classroom, angrily throwing the door open and taking a seat far away near a window. The handful of students already there spared him no more than a glance before returning to either their inane chatter or sitting there quietly. Gratefully none seemed to make any connection between him and the incident, or if they did, none made to comment on it.

After sitting there and letting some of his frustrations simmer down he looked to his peers. Only one or two more had walked in since his own arrival, and they were only half the class now at most. The rest would probably show up in the next 10 minutes or so, as class was meant to start in just under 15. There weren't many that stood out, just a spiky haired redhead and a girl with an unnaturally large ponytail. Oh. And that guy. He didn't recognize him or the ponytailed chick during the entrance exam, though he had seen the redhead. The boy that caught his attention was difficult not to notice if only due to his dual colored hair. One half was a crisp, snowy white while the other was a vivid red. His eyes, much like his hair, were mismatched and most noticeable of all was the blotchy red scar that covered half his face. The scar itself nearly matched his hair in shade and only made his blue eye stand out that much more among the sea of bloody red scar tissue. If this boy had been at the exam, Katsuki is sure he would have seen him. That meant he was some fucking elite. He'd gotten in on recommendation then. There were supposed to be two kids that got in that way per class. He immediately hated him. What was so special about this half-and-half bastard? Katsuki placed him on the top of his list of people to crush.

He propped his feet up onto his desk as he hung his head back, thinking. What if Deku was in his class? Would he crush her along with the rest? It wouldn't be difficult. He could probably just sit back and watch her fail miserably all on her own. Did he want to see her fail?

"Please remove your feet from that desk immediately."

Katsuki cracked one of his eyes open to glare at the source of the demanding tone. It was the blocky glasses dick that yelled at Deku in the auditorium. He ground his teeth. This guy was on his list, too. "Don't feel like it."

Rectangles' mouth hung open like a gaping fish. Was it really so hard to believe someone would no to him? Katsuki smirked inwardly. Rectangles tried again, more aggressively, "Take your feet off that desk!"

"Haah?" Rectangles' face was turning all sorts of interesting colors.

"Don't you think that's disrespectful to our upperclassmen and to the school?!"

Well that was just stupid. How was his kicking back while waiting for their teacher to show the fuck up disrespectful? "Nope," then something clicked, "What school'd you come from? They shove a stick up your ass or were you just born with it?" Katsuki could feel the eyes of everyone is the room on the two of them by now. It was probably just about the whole class at this point, the teacher would be showing up in a few minutes, but he didn't care. This guy was pissing him off. Acting all high and mighty- he'd been the same back in the auditorium- jumping to conclusions about UA and about Deku.

Rectangles seemed to pause and took a moment to look at him as if he were measuring him up. "Let's start over. I'm Tenya Iida." He stuck out his hand to shake and Katsuki peered at it suspiciously. Introductions aside, he didn't like this guy. Didn't like the way he looked or talked or walked or felt. "I attended Somei Private Academy-"

"Somei?" There it was. The reason this prat thought he was so much better than him and Deku. "You're a damn elite! Bet you think you're better than me! I'm gonna have fun crushing you!"

"You would threaten your own classmate? Are you sure you're aiming to be a hero?" Katsuki scoffed at him and turned away. Turned right into big, blinking green eyes. His eyes widened at the sight of her. Deku's hair was tied up neatly with one of her stupid ribbons. It was a bright red, matching her sloppily done tie and those bulky red sneakers she always insisted on. The blazer wrapped neatly around her small body and the uniform skirt hung just so. Not that he was paying any attention whatsoever to how cute she looked in the uniform. None at all. All the same his heart stuttered in his chest at the sight of her. She was looking at them, him and Rectangles, looking somewhere between exasperated and terrified. Right. This bastard had yelled at her earlier, so she was probably scared of him.

"It's you!" His head snapped to the side at Rectangles' voice. Deku seemed frozen to the spot by the door, gaping like a fish. "Good morning!" Rectangles started towards her and Katsuki felt his legs twitch, ready to chase after him, but he stayed put instead. "I am from Somei Private Academy! I-"

"I-I heard all that! I'm Izuku Midoriya. It's very nice to meet you." Why the hell was she being so polite to him? Why was she always such a complete and total pussy? This guy had been a jerk to her before, so why was she playing nice?

Rectangles started going off about her realizing something about the exam, but not a lick of it made sense. He stared on in bafflement at the two of them, the chaotic interaction only becoming stranger upon the arrival of some round faced girl that seemed to know Deku. The two of them started twirling around like a couple of buffoons until Deku screamed. She didn't go eep or anything like when he used to bully her. She _screamed_. His fingers clenched at the edge of the desk as she stooped down, clutching her arms to her body. What was wrong with her? Rectangles was crouched in front of her worriedly, only serving to further make Katsuki want to bash his four-eyed face in.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! Gosh I was so excited, I didn't think I grabbed you that hard! I'm so, so sorry!"

"No, I'm fine, really. You didn't hurt me." But she still looked like she was in pain. Deku glanced around the classroom before standing up. The trio seemed to be chattering again and he shook his head. He didn't care about any of them. The teacher was going to be late if they didn't show up soon.

It was immediately after this thought that the condescending worm showed up, proclaimed himself their teacher, and told them all to put on the track uniforms and meet outside. Good. He was ready to get started crushing these extras.

* * *

So once or twice a month seems to be as consistent as I can manage. That said, I'll try to make it at least twice a month instead of once. Also! This is only Part 1 of Chapter 10! I just figured, it is about as long as most of my individual chapters are already, and you guys deserve and update! This is mostly just recap of everything so far, but from Kacchan's POV. The rest of chapter 10 will cover the quirk test, their battle simulation, and that moment they have afterwards where Deku tried to explain the quirk situation. I'm going to hopefully have it to you soon. My work schedule has been keeping me busy, but after labor day, we're only open 3 days a week, so I won't be full-time anymore. That should help speed things along. I have, against my better judgement, been writhing all sorts of stuff for future chapters, so as a fun heads-up, know that you'll be getting another All Might chapter as well as a Todoroki chapter. The Todoroki chapter is the one that's the furthest along right now, but that's still a while away chronologically.

As usual, thanks to absolutely everyone who commented. Like I said, I've been busy, so I haven't gotten to respond to people through PM like usual, so here goes.

KookierThanFiction - Yes! That is definitely already happening on Kacchan's end, largely because he is a piece of garbage. The garbage king of misinterpreting absolutely everything about Izuku.

A shout out to that one guest who always just comments with 'update'. You are the light of my life.

Also shout out to that guest that tried to link me to fem!Deku art even though the links didn't work! Your effort is appreciated!

Lazyreader288 - Thanks a bunch! To keep things vague, Deku's dad is a mystery, Todo is just an awkward asshole baby, and Izuku loves cooking for everyone. Also thanks so much for the critical review. I always worry my paragraphs aren't long enough, especially because of the way things look once uploaded to . I'll try to keep in mind that walls of text are a chore to read because I can definitely see that being a problem.

flowerpower55 - Thanks for commenting! That seems to be the general consensus so far as far as shipping goes. Since I'm multi-shipper garbage, and personally a Poly person, OT3 is still a pretty viable ending, so don't lose hope. There's no telling where I'm going to steer this flaming garbage train of a story.

D0uble - Thank you. Just thank you. I laughed for I kid you not like minimum 5 minutes straight at your comment. Ya Bastard!

Ganrano - Def going to have Kacchan and Deku fight, but I do plan on mixing up their partners. Id you have any ideas for that, let me know! (That goes for anyone else, too)

Jaravic - Your comments have lead to a whole Dad Might excursion coming up soon, this is all your fault, please enjoy it.

Sachi Kameko- I'm so glad that you like my Katsuki portrayal! I think he's one of the trickier characters to write, but I hope I do him justice. This chapter especially I worry he might be OOC. That said thanks for the critique! It's a solid point. Almost everyone reading this had already read or watched the series, so I probably don't have to labor through too much of the canon. There will be some original content coming up, so I hope you will enjoy that!

viovel - Shout out for being the only one to care about poor, sweet Ochako in the reviews! Also Endeavor is certainly going to have words.

MylaUchiha- I'm going to try to give everyone a happy ending! Except Mineta. I might kill him.

SnowyWyvern - I hadn't even thought of that! It would have been golden! Someone should write that story, since it's not the direction this one is headed. I definitely like the idea though.

OKAY, I think that's about everyone that needed a response of some sort. As always, pleas, please, PLEASE feel free to send me ideas for this story, or others, and always feel free to chat me up. I'm always happy to receive critique, so long as it actually is constructive (as in you tell me something I'm doing and a way to potentially make it better. Again, Thanks to Lazyreader288 and Sachi Kameko for their critiques, and to everyone else for telling me what they like about the story! Comments are the surest way to a fic writer's heart!


	11. Chapter 11

Katsuki was fairly sure he was staring. She was stupid. Or she was a freak? Probably both. Definitely both. Deku was shuffling out of the girls' changing room with that angel face from the classroom. The truly bizarre thing was the fact that she was wearing the button up from her uniform under the tracksuit. The white sleeves looked puffy sticking out from under the dark blue of the gym uniform. The tracksuit was meant to be fitted and he could see the bunched up fabric making it sit awkwardly on her torso. What the hell was she doing? He shook his head and tried to put her out of mind.

Yet he couldn't keep his eyes off her. She kept glancing over the class and anxiously tugging at her sleeves. Why so fidgety all of a sudden? She folded her arms behind her back. That was weird but he couldn't summon up why it was weird.

Slug-teacher's monotone drawl caught his attention as he announced why they were all out here. A quirk assessment. Katsuki felt his face split into a grin. This was going to be great.

"What about orientation?" Angel Face piped up from where she stood at the front with Deku. Who cares? The teacher dismissed her quickly. This guy was clearly going to be all business and that suited Katsuki just fine. The students around him shuffled restlessly.

"Bakugou," he perked up at being addressed. So this slug guy had already memorized all of their names? "How far could you throw a ball in middle school?" All eyes were on him now and usually he would relish the feeling of being the center of attention, but something felt off. It hit him a beat later that he was nervous. His usual arrogant confidence had been shot by the aftermath of the sludge incident. He was wigged out. Surrounded by unknown quirks that might, however impossible he told himself, be better than his. He was still the best. He had gotten into UA. But so had all these people. So had Deku.

He swallowed, "Sixty-seven meters." Fuck everybody else. He was still the best. He hadn't stopped training since he got accepted. He'd worked too hard not to be the best. He'd prove it right now, right here. To all of them. He'd prove he was better that the spiky redhead and the ponytailed chick and half-and-half-bastard. He was better than all of them.

"Great." He tossed Katsuki a ball which he easily caught in one hand. "Now throw this. Do whatever you need to, just don't leave the circle. Give it all you got." Katsuki felt a jolt of excitement rush through him upon the instructions. He was being used as the example. Perfect. He'd show all of them how powerful he was before they even started. He swaggered out into the field. What to do? He could propel it forward with an explosion, right? After all Scarf-sensei did say he could do whatever. He brought his arm back and felt his muscles flex before he swung forward, setting off the explosion at the zenith of his swing. "DIE!" The ball rocketed through the air.

Scarf-sensei said something about knowing their limits, but all he cared about was the little number on the reader. 705.2. He huffed and walked back to the crowd as they all buzzed with exhilaration. He was grinning to himself. That number was huge. Unreal. He could probably do even better with some practice. It had never occurred to him to use his quirk like that. Really, though, his quirk could be real versatile. These tests would be easy. He could probably get the best score on every test.

He spotted Deku and realized she wasn't smiling like everyone else. Of course. She didn't have a quirk. It had never mattered for physical tests before because of the restrictions on quirk use. Now? She was at a huge disadvantage. He wanted to feel giddy. He'd get to watch her come in last on every single test. She'd humiliate herself and everyone would laugh just like they always did. He should be happy about it. She didn't belong here with him. Maybe she'd drop out. The idea didn't bring him joy though. No. She wouldn't. Deku was stubborn if nothing else. She wouldn't give up over embarrassment. She'd been through plenty of it before but was still here. Still dreaming. "Awesome, huh?" Katsuki felt uneasy as Slug-Sensei smiled at the class, "You're all aiming to become heroes after three years here and you think it'll be all fun and games? All right. Whoever comes in last place for all eight tests will be judged to have no potential and will be punished with expulsion." The whole class seemed to have a similar reaction to that, but Katsuki couldn't care. He'd just easily come to the conclusion that deku would come in last. She'd be expelled? After she made it so far? All the grueling work he knew she'd put in would be rendered moot? "We're free to do what we want about the circumstances of our students. Welcome to the UA Hero Course." He felt himself grin. He was gonna place first no matter what. Deku had gotten this far on her own and if she flunked out, she flunked out. Besides not all of their classmates' quirks would give them an advantage in a physical test, so there were at least a few people competing without an edge like Deku. She'd have to work it out on her own. He had to smash his own competition.

Angel-face seemed to think it was unfair but Scarf-sensei shut that down real quick. Katsuki would just focus on his own goal. That was his approach to the first test. So of course he would get partnered with the most distracting person possible. No helping it.

"Uh-Um, good luck, Kacchan." She was trying to smile. Katsuki only scoffed in return. Of course she was wishing him luck. That was just so like her. Idiot. This was a contest. Though she did look decidedly frazzled so she probably realized the stakes, at least. He made sure he was a solid distance ahead of her before he set off his quirk. Not throwing an explosion in her face during the test was probably the least he could do.

Once they were passed the first test Katsuki was able to turn his attention to his own potential threats within the class. Red, Ponytail, and Half-n-half were the ones he was looking out for. Four-eyes, too. Red's quirk was weird looking, but seemed useful. Four-eyes was a Speedster. That was a simple but versatile ability. Ponytail he hadn't managed to actually pay attention to, but he'd figure her out later. He didn't like the air of superiority she gave off. Half-n-Half had an ice quirk it looked like. Go fucking figure they'd be natural, elementally opposing enemies. His quirk was probably equally as efficient if he was smart about using it, which he seemed to be. Definitely the largest threat.

Before he seemed to realize they were at the ball toss. He'd already done it technically, not that he would mind trying again. He could maybe get a higher score if he did. But it was a once and done deal for each of them, so he would just take the chance to observe.

"Midoriya's in trouble if she doesn't shape up." He glanced over. Four-eyes was standing next to him, irritatingly towering over him.

"Huh?" He pointed at her in his agitation, the hell was four-eyes gettin' worried for anyway? "Of course not! She's a quirkless small fry!"

Four-eyes had the fucking gall to act surprised, "Quirkless? Did you not hear about what she did in the entrance exam?" The fuck was this guy talking about? He'd known Deku longer than anyone save her mother and she was as quirkless as could be. Who was this jerk acting like he knew something Katsuki didn't?

"Haah?" The quickly escalating conversation came to a halt when Deku took her throw. As expected. Pathetic. In fact, was that worse than her middle school score? She was standing there looking shell-shocked.

Scarf-sensei came forward and seemed to be talking to her, but he couldn't hear much. The whole class heard her exclamation identifying their teacher as Eraserhead, though. One of the man's scarves reached out and pulled her close as they spoke and boy did Katsuki not like that, but more importantly his curiosity was killing him. What were they talking about all hush-hush like that? The scarves receded and Deku got another ball before trudging back to the throwing circle. She got another go? Did this have something to do with him being Eraserhead? That guy erased quirks, right? What did that have to do with Deku of all people? She didn't even have a quirk to erase.

"Looks like she got some advice from the teacher."

"Bullshit. Probably just told her to pack her bags."

Deku reared back and threw. Katsuki stood there speechless, staring at the sky. The ball came down somewhere far off.

"705.3 meters." What?

No. No. No. She was nothing. Just quirkless Deku. Powerless. Hopeless. Useless. She was less than nothing. She was less than nothing and she'd beaten his score. This was impossible. It was a joke. Some horrible joke. His soulmate was a pathetic waste of space with no quirk who could never, no matter what, be on par with him, much less beat him at something.

"Deku, you bitch!" Liar, liar, liar. "Tell me what you did or you're dead!" Tell me the truth. His feet were already off the ground, dashing forward. He saw her blanch at him before shrieking and falling over. All of a sudden he wasn't getting any closer to her, though. Scarf-sensei had wrapped him up in his scarf, somehow fixing him in place. "What the fuck!?" He felt angry and trapped as he struggled against the bindings to no avail. This was freaking him out. "Why're your scarves so strong?!" Katsuki was livid without any outlet to let his frustration wreak havoc on even though there was a perfectly good target right there. If he could fucking reach her. See how far she can throw when she's on fire, fucking Liar.

"Because it's a capture weapon made out of carbon fiber and a special metal alloy. Now stand down!" Aizawa-sensei's inflection was cutting. "It's unwise to make me use my quirk so much. It gives me dry-eye!" That's so lame! "You're wasting time now. Whoever's next can step up." The scarves drew back, releasing him. He was standing several feet from her. All he could do was glare. This was so frustrating. He wanted to throttle her. Liar. Deku stood and scurried away a moment later, every inch of her screamed fear and he felt sick. What right did she have to act so afraid when she'd been holding back all these years? She had a quirk? What the Hell? She'd been laughing at him all this time, hiding some amazing power. He was a joke to her. Did she know about his mark? Was that why? Why she never said anything? Did she think she was too good for him? Fucking bitch. Fucking liar. Fucking soulmates. Fuck! He felt an agonizing squeeze around his chest.

Katsuki quickly returned to his spot. The constricting feeling hurt. More than it used to. The flowers had taken over most of his torso recently, but this feeling was the vines he'd had before the sludge incident. When he'd been bullying her. He'd almost forgotten how much it hurt. He could feel them around his chest, like they were suffocating him. He felt like couldn't breathe. He snuck a look at Deku. She was huddled between Four-Eyes and Angel Face, her back turned to him. He closed his eyes to focus through the pain. He'd dealt with these shitty vines for most his life, just cause he'd gone a few months without them flaring up didn't mean he suddenly couldn't handle them.

"Endeavor!? The number two hero!?" His eyes snapped open at that. Deku's voice, he followed her gaze to half-n-half. Looked like he'd just finished his toss. Izuku crouched down trying to hide herself and Half-n-half turned about as bright red as his scar while he frowned and returned to his spot among the class. The fuck was that about? He shook it off. He'd confront Deku about her newfound quirk later. The class moved on to the next test and he briefly saw Four-eyes and her lagging behind, chatting it up. She had to be trying to piss him off at this point. Or maybe it was all Four-eyes' idea? Some elaborate prank on Katsuki for not being prim and proper enough or some shit. No, that was stupid, and Deku didn't have a mean bone in her body. She also hadn't had a quirk before though. Maybe he didn't know her so well after all. Whatever. She might get expelled today anyway. At this point, he'd consider it a blessing.

The next tests passed by quickly. His scores seemed to improve if only because he needed somewhere to shove his anger. If there was any consolation to all this, he was a shoe-in for first place.

Everyone gathered about in a loose circle for Aizawa-sensei to announce the results. "I've ranked you all from best to worst. Most of you probably have a decent idea of your standing already. I'm just gonna put up the whole list since it's not worth going over everything individually."

A hologram ranking list appeared in front of them and Katsuki felt himself smirk. Easy. Of course he was first. He almost didn't bother looking.

But he did look. Then he kept looking. This was wrong. It had to be. He didn't know how but somehow it was wrong.

Not even one, but two people beat him? Rage surged through him quickly. No. Momo Yaoyorozu and Shouto Todoroki. Who were they? He didn't remember their names from the practical exam rankings? The referrals! Ponytail and Half-n-half. He turned to glare at one of them, and it was painfully easy to pick red and white out of the crowd. He hated him. Icy bastard. Fucking look at me! The jerk wasn't even looking at the board, like he didn't care where he ranked. Like it wasn't worth seeing. What was that Half-n-half bastard looking at so fixedly anyway? He jerked his head to the side along the other boy's gaze and his glare dropped. Deku. He was staring at Deku. Her hands were grasped tightly in front of her chest, face flushed from the day's work, a smile tugging at her lips as she stared, wide-eyed at the board. Oh. She wasn't last.

* * *

Katsuki nearly broke his front door off the hinges when he got home. He stomped violent to his room and threw himself backwards onto the bed. He glared at the ceiling. He was furious. Nothing good had happened on his first day of school. His morning had been a mess, but not overly bad exactly, Four-eyes and all, but things had just gone straight down the toilet once Deku walked in. He hadn't come in first, but had been beaten by two fucking elitists. One of which kept staring Deku. Deku who had a quirk now. She lied to him. For years. He almost couldn't process it properly. Or maybe he wasn't processing it at all? Kind, sweet Deku? Wishing-luck-to-the-competition Deku? Deku who had physically, unflinchingly thrown herself at a monster just to win him a few seconds of oxygen? He felt cold and sweaty and his head ached. His eyes burned, but he wasn't in the mood to cry. Crying over her would be stupid. He wasn't supposed to care, thought he hadn't cared in years.

His mark had changed though? That meant something was different now, right? He swallowed and sat up, taking several calming breaths. Fuck it. Katsuki made a mad dash for the bathroom, practically tearing his uniform from his torso.

He gaped, utterly bewildered, at the mirror. The fucking vines were wrapped completed around his torso, front and back. They shifted as he watched them, felt them. The flora were gone. Choked out. Save one, poking out between two wrapped vines. It looked perfectly healthy and colorful, but it was alone. It had never been this bad before. Never. What had he done wrong? He placed his hand over the sole blossom, right over his heart.

Katsuki scoffed and turned from his reflection to twist the water dial in the shower. He didn't do anything wrong. It was Deku. She lied. She did this to him. He'd show her who was the best. Her and Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, too. He'd show everyone.

* * *

Author's Notes: This chapter gave me so much more pain than it really should've. For some reason the quirk test was just absolutely agonizing to write? IDK. I'm not wild with how it turned out, but at this point I haven't updated in way too long and I just want to get this chapter out so the story can move on. I always thought it was weird that Deku got last? Objectively it makes zero sense in that not everyone's quirks would enhance their test results in a physical. Jirou has ear jacks? How does that make her better at pushups? Toru is just invisible? So assuming there are other people who physically aren't enhanced and the fact that Deku has spent the last 10 months training rigorously? It just doesn't make sense. It's like the singular thing in BNHA that eats at me. It haunts me. Mineta would have been last if not for Izuku. Would he have been expelled? How would the class pair up with an off number of students? What if Mineta just fucking got kicked out an Day 1? Anyway. I'm rambling.

Y'all know what comes next, so be ready. It'll be out either at the very end of November or the beginning of December since I'm moving in a few days and things are chaotic right now. Not sure how busy I'll be or how much free time I'll have with my new job, but I 'm aiming for get the rest of season 1 out asap.

As usual, please talk to me in the comments. Suggestions for fighting pairs are welcome for the upcoming fight especially! I'm probably gonna shove Kiri in there, but who else? Thanks for reading, thanks anyone who favorited or followed during my absence, and thanks most of all to my loyal reviewers! You know who you are!

EDIT: I just went through to fix some typos and missing words, so nothing's different. It just reads a bit more smoothly.


	12. Chapter 12

So the class wasn't complete trash. That was something to work with at least. Midoriya was concerning in her reckless all-or-nothing attitude, but she had spunk. And she was a clever little snot. There was also a lot of raw power in the class besides her. Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, and Bakugou especially all had amazing quirks that they weren't using to the best of their ability. There were a lot of others that had unique powers that would be difficult to turn offensive. It was a well rounded class, even with the less than amazing individuals. There was potential.

He walked around the building to where All Might- Toshinori- thought he was being sneaky.

All Might shot up upon his aprroach, back going straight, before relaxing a bit and rubbing at the back of his neck. Aizawa watched the movement lazily. He frowned a bit at the way his stomach fluttered. It wasn't rational to feel like this. They weren't high schoolers anymore, and besides, he had his own soulmate. As ridiculous as the whole notion was to him, he knew it meant something to everyone else. He wasn't supposed to want to run his fingers through Toshinori's hair. He wasn't supposed to be as jaded as he was about All Might's so-called "true form" or the resulting implications. The man was keeping secrets. More than Aizawa had thought him capable of.

All Might seemed to pull himself together a bit. "Aizawa, you liar!"

"Too much time on your hands?"

The blonde barely reacted to the jab. "A 'Rational Deception'! April Fools was last week! You expelled a whole class of first years just last year because you said they lacked potential. For a guy like you to go back on his words- it must be because you saw her potential as well!" All Might pointed a finger at him for emphasis.

Aizawa turned to give him his full attention. "As well?" Now that got a reaction. "You seem to be supporting her quite a bit. Is that alright for a teacher?"

The other man faltered, finger falling and body going rigid.

Aizawa kept going, "It's a tad early in the year to be picking favorites. Her potential wasn't zero. That's all." Aizawa walked away, lost in thought. It was cruel to cut dreams short halfway. But why did Toshinori care about her? She'd reminded him of the Symbol of Peace before, if only in her wily over eager attitude and lack of self preservation. Reckless, self-sacrificial idiots. But there was something else. Their quirks were rather similar weren't they? That was odd, and Aizawa didn't really believe in coincidences, but what could he say? There wasn't evidence to draw a conclusion. Not yet. He'd have to wait and watch. Midoriya was bound to be a spectacle regardless of success or failure, if only because she wouldn't go down without a fight.

* * *

AN: This obviously is not long enough to constitute as an actual chapter, but I thought I'd let y'all know I am not dead (yet) since I haven't updated since my moving house back in November. My life's been hectic, but I'll not get into details because it's all sort of personal. Also thought I'd let you know I won't be splitting POVs by chapter anymore as it seems to be a nuisance for everyone involved. Currently writing the battle sequence and just to get you hyped, I'm telling you it's going to be Kacchan and Todoroki VS Deku and Iida. Look forward to it! Oh and let me know if these little snippets of other characters are something you would like to see more of.


End file.
